a lot of people take it for granted that when the green man comes on at the pedestrian crossing, all vehicles will definitely come to a halt. this is evident from the way they look straight ahead as they nonchalantly make their way across the road, not bothering to check if everything is okay by looking to their left or right, as the case may be.
this kind of assumption is akin to saying that no aeroplane will fall from the sky but planes with mechanical problems have done that, ploughing into people and houses. a vehicle may fail to stop in time because of a mechanical or human error. the brakes may be faulty or the driver may be daydreaming or engrossed in some other task.
when it comes to crossing at pedestrian crossing, some people switch to a mode which is atypically singaporean. we are a people who seem to be in a hurry though not as hurried as hong kongers but, at pedestrian crossing, you see 'small' people who enjoy the 'power of exercising their right of way' by taking their own sweet time to cross the road.
i always make it a point to cover the pedestrian crossing in as brisk a manner as possible but there are exceptions. like, when i encounter motorists who do not show much care and concern for pedestrians. you can recognise such motorists; they do not slow down when approaching a pedestrian crossing. when such a motorist is compelled to stop for us, i will walk across at my normal pace.
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When I was working in Switzerland I was horrified to hear that something like 80% of road traffic accidents invovling pedestrians occured on pedestrian crossings. For such a law abiding nation the Swiss seem to pay scant attention to pedestrian crossings. View of the crossings is often obstructed by parked cars either side of the crossing compared to the UK crossings where there are markings either side of crossings where parking and overtaking is not permitted.
I have always treated crossings with care and will not start to cross if there are any vehicles approaching until I can see that they are definitely stopping. We have a saying here " His widow complained all the way to his funeral that he had the right of way!" It is always worth remembering that motor vehicles are a lot harder than flesh and bone!
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