Today, pedestrians in Switzerland almost always have right of way. That hasn’t always been the case. Since the first zebra crossing was installed in Basel in 1948, however, pedestrian road use has become a lot safer.
Today, pedestrians in Switzerland almost always have right of way. That hasn’t always been the case. Since the first zebra crossing was installed in Basel in 1948, however, pedestrian road use has become a lot safer.
7 comments
Mandatory “This has brought Swiss pedestrians to mindlessly cross without looking or warning at any given crosswalk.” comment, followed by replies of people telling their story of near misses, followed the honorable mention “bike on sidewalk, crosswalk”.
One day roads will be for people and not hunk of metal. And that will be great.
I’d rather have people holding their hands up if they want to cross the road. I experienced a lot of times where people just stand by a crossing close to the street, but not walking when the drivers stop for them.
Please correct me if I am wrong, but trams have higher priority even on crosswalks. Please don’t jump in front of the tram thinking you have priority. Those massive piles of steel will run over you.
It’s interesting because now they are trying to go the other way.
See [this example in Zurich](https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/ted/de/index/taz/erhalten/temporaere_nutzungen/mehrzweckstreifen_nordbruecke.html#so_funktionierts) where the following rules hold:
Pedestrians:
* Vehicle traffic has right of way.
* Stop briefly at the roadside.
* Wait for a gap in traffic or until you are allowed to cross.
* Make eye contact with the drivers.
* Use the multi-purpose strip as a stopover.
Vehicle driver:
* Ride attentively and at a reasonable speed.
* Be considerate and allow pedestrians to cross.
* Communicate with eye contact and hand signals on the right of way.
* Only drive on the multi-purpose lane in exceptional cases and when turning.
* Visually impaired people always have right of way.
The concept is that vehicle-pedestrian interaction is arguably safer without zebra crossing, because it encourage communication between users of the road.
Few examples: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTHKF0aRCS0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTHKF0aRCS0)
Same in the UK
If there are no markings, pedestrians have right of way.
Most countries do I think, it’s just people kind of misinterprete this to mean “I can tell cars what to do” when it’s more “who the onus is on to not hit the other”
It’s amazing how we celebrate not being run over by the monstrous, ugly, dangerous infrastructure we created.