Quote:
Originally Posted by margaretmattson
You can not always walk facing traffic. Example: Everyone who lives in a particular village is invited for a gathering at a nearby rec center. Some drive their cars, others bikes or scooters, and those who live close walk. It is obvious everyone must go in the same direction to get to the rec center. A walker can not walk against traffic, he/she will be going the wrong way.
This is when you follow the standard traffic rules. Bikes and walkers stay off the road. Cars always have the right of way. Walkers stay to the far right on the path that leads to the rec center allowing faster traffic (bikes, scooters, joggers etc) to pass them on the left.
This seems to be standard practice everywhere except here in the villages. Walkers, for their safety, should always heed to faster traffic. Remember when you were in grade school and you were taught to walk in single file keeping to the right?
Again, this is how I have always been taught. Seems to be the safest. If anyone knows how it is done in the villages, please let me know. I don't want to be hit by a faster vehicle.
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It's done in The Villages however the person decides they should, obviously.
I was taught to always walk on the right side of the sidewalk, and bicyclists should pass me on the left, and if the bike behind me sees someone else coming toward them and can't pass safely, they need to just wait til they can, and then they do. I was taught, that bicyclists shouldn't HAVE to call out that they're passing a pedestrian, because - the bicyclist is passing on the left, and the pedestrian is walking on the right. But that as a matter of courtesy, they call it out anyway - or they ring their little bell if they have one.
If you're in a street where there is no sidewalk, I was taught to walk against traffic most of the time. If the destination is on the same side of the road as walking WITH traffic, and it's within a block, then you stay on the "with traffic" side of the road as close to the curb as possible, instead of crossing the street, walking the block, and crossing the street again to get to your destination.
If you're going north, and the street is a one-way street that also goes north, then it doesn't matter which side of the street you're on, because you'll be walking "with" traffic no matter what, anyway. Just stay near the curb.
I wasn't taught about MMPs because we didn't have them where I come from, so I treat the MMP as if it were a very narrow street, and stick to the opposite side.
On the trails at Paradise Park where it doesn't say "Pedestrians Only," I ride my bicycle near the center of the trail unless someone is approaching - and then I pull over to the right edge. I call out to pedestrians ahead of me, before I pass them to let them know I'm coming.
Edited to add: The car doesn't have the right of way on the road by the way. The pedestrian does, unless there's a sign posted indicating that pedestrians are not allowed. That doesn't mean a pedestrian can just walk into the middle of a roundabout. But it does mean that if a car sees a pedestrian already in a roundabout, the pedestrian has the right of way and the car needs to yield to them until that pedestrian is - wherever the heck he thought he was heading when he was stupid enough to walk into a roundabout.
That's what I was taught, that's what I've been doing all my life. Unless there is an actual regulation that requires me to do otherwise, I'll just keep doing that.