What's the news?
In a shocking survey of motoring attitudes in Ireland, it seems that we all hate ourselves and blame ourselves for breaking the rules of the road all the time. That is the result of the latest Easytrip survey, which found that 72 per cent of pedestrians have seen a motorist breaking a red light at a pedestrian crossing. Many of these pedestrians also, shockingly, own cars.
On the motorists' side, 42 per cent said that they had seen a pedestrian (which is really just a motorist temporarily removed from their car) walk out in front of a moving car, while 26 per cent said that they had seen pedestrians breaking the don't-walk red light at pedestrian crossings. Presumably before parking up and using the same pedestrian crossing themselves.
A shocking 29 per cent of drivers pulled safely over to the side of the road to tweet that they had seen pedestrians using their mobile phones to text, chat or tweet while crossing the road, in flagrant disregard of the fact that there is no law against doing so. Whatsoever. Yet, 85 per cent of pedestrians admitted to committing this non-crime.
Furthermore, 57 per cent of pedestrians said that jaywalking should not be enforced by the Gardai, while 41 per cent of motorists (many of whom will, let's not forget, be the same people) said it should be.
There was one genuinely concerning nugget of news in the survey though - over 80 per cent of urban pedestrians claimed not to wear reflective clothing when walking in the evening or night time, this was compared to 96 per cent in rural areas who wore it only on occasion. "Our second road user's survey has brought up some alarming findings and in particular of those select number of pedestrians who cross the road with little regard for oncoming traffic" comments Colin Delaney, General Manager of Easytrip. "On the other side it's very unfortunate to see that motorists are breaking the red light at pedestrian crossings - a place that is perceived to be a safe crossing point.
"It is crucial that both motorists and pedestrians respect the safety and rights of each other on the road. It's also important that pedestrians consider wearing reflective gear on poorly lit roads at night time, particularly in rural areas where there may not be adequate footpaths, so that drivers are aware of their presence", says Colin.
In further news, perhaps it is time we all just got along and learned to share the road like rational, reasonable people...