Zebra Crossings

The abandonment of zebra crossings comes from the same school of thought as puts traffic lights on roundabouts. We need to be told what to do, rather than learn what to do. Lurking underneath all of this is the dumbing down of road design standards Europe-wide. Anyone who has tried out a zebra crossing on the continent south of Brussels will know that zebra crossings are there for decorative purposes only.

Not only south of Brussels, don’t try and cross at the zebra-crossing in Antwerp ’cause you’ll get driven over. The English are the only ones that respect zebra-crossings, indeed, all in all, the English are the most competent drivers anywhere I find.

It is facinating the respect they hold for crossings – I could list countless experiences there.
But a couple of years back I was in Weston-Super-Mare (on a fleeting visit I assure you) and was at a pedestrian crossing to get to the promenade. And as far as the eye could see down the road in both directions there wasn’t a car to be had – to the extent one would have expected some tumbleweed to bumble along. And yet the grouping at the crossing just stood there like gombeens/civic minded-citizens waiting for the Green Man Himself.

It was extraordinary, like standing at O’ Cll Bridge with all of the quays deserted on both sides.
And when you think of the headless chicken chaos that prevails here every second of the day – you’d wonder…

what?

when i lived in england my absolute favourite thing was the long underground escalators, it would be completely packed and still every last person would stand to the left to allow people in a hurry to walk up. its beautiful.

my absolute least favourite thing was the smug mock outrage that they indulge in if someone gets it wrong. i was living in cambridge which is i think the world centre for this.