Traffic issues and questions
 

I needed to go to Creekside complex yesterday morning so had just made the turn from Stillwater going towards the 4-way stop by TooJay's. "JUST" before where the golf-carts cross a gentleman in his cart was buzzing right along, didn't pause--much less stop and appeared not to even look and nearly became a hood ornament on my car. Good thing I wasn't going fast!! He seemed angry that I would have tooted my horn to warn him. Anyway---I've observed carts thinking they have the right of way at these crossings and they truly don't. Tis the season where we all need to be wary when out and about!!

I do have a question though---if folks are walking on those and want to cross, should auto traffic stop and let them go as they would in a cross-walk?? I would think since it's not a marked crossing they'd have to defer to traffic BUT I could be wrong on this one.

Pedestrians do not have the right-of-way at that crossing. The autos do. And I'm a great believer in taking and acting on your right-of-way. Trying to be nice when not necessary is inefficient and even a hazard at most locations. But there are exceptions and that specific location can often be one. There are often cars backed up from the 4-way stop to the roundabout, at least in the winter. I think then...with great caution...it is acceptable to allow pedestrians, bicyclists, and carts to cross until the traffic starts moving again.

Thank you! THAT was my thought too! At that same crossing after my app't there was a couple, walking, and the woman was trying to flag cars to stop and seemed upset when they didn't. I kept driving. The other day I experienced exactly what you said about vehicular traffic being backed up on to Stillwater as well as the round-about and cars coming out of that neighborhood as well. It was truly hairy trying to navigate safely....with impatient drivers along with the back-up. I'm not sure what would be the best way to get to Creekside unless it's to go to the other entrance to LSL off Morse---but then there's the traffic issues with the square etc. too.

That is a multi-model path which includes walkers. Why would you not have to stop and let them cross at a crosswalk?

Pedestrians in a crosswalk have the right of way in Florida. Flordia Crosswalk Laws | Pedestrian Rules of the Road | Meldon LawMeldon Law If they let you kill them in a crosswalk it's your fault.

Also from The State of FL: >> Florida Statutes 316.130 – Pedestrians; traffic regulationsLawServer

To stop in the road (with no stop sign) because a cart or walker is waiting to cross (not already in crosswalk), is hazardous/illegal.
Of course, if the walker/cart is already in the crosswalk, that is a different story.

A pedestrian crossing at a marked crosswalk has the right of way. A pedestrian crossing anywhere else is supposed to yield to non-pedestrian traffic. This is true in the reverse: vehicles trying to get from point A to point B on a legally authorized public road have the right of way, except at marked pedestrian crosswalks, when they must yield to pedestrian traffic.

That said - if you're dumb enough to not abide by what you were taught when you were a kid "stop and look both ways before crossing the street" then my response when I hear you got hit by a car will be "thoughts and prayers."

At the location in question, there is no marked crosswalk and cars have no stop sign. The MMP does have stop signs. Cars have absolute right-of-way.

An extremely dangerous...and basically wrong...oversimplification.

Signalized intersections have marked crosswalks. So a car approaching the intersection with a green light is going to stop for pedestrians? Please provide a link to that law.

Use that crossing quite regularly in golf cart, and some of the shenanigans pulled by cart drivers, bicyclists and pedestians at it, beggers belief sometimes.
Stop signs on both side of MMP.
I trust nothing, and no one at that crossing.

An extremely dangerous - and basically wrong - oversimplification of what I said. You missed a very important word: "crossing."

Crossing is present tense. Not pluperfect, not past, not future. Present. It means - someone is actively doing this thing.

If a person is actively in the process of crossing the street at a marked crosswalk, then yes - that person has the right of way. EVEN if someone is approaching that crosswalk on the street in a motor vehicle and they have a green light. They MUST stop and allow the person who is walking to complete their journey to the other side of the street. EVEN if that pedestrian isn't immediately in their path, merely on their way toward it.

Once the pedestrian steps off the curb and into the street at a marked crossroad, he automatically has the right of way on that road.

If he hasn't left the curb yet then no - he doesn't have the right of way if oncoming traffic has a green light. But that wasn't what I was talking about - which is why I used the present tense of "to cross."

So drivers are not supposed to run into people who are in the road in front of them??!!?? Thanks so much for pointing that out to all us drivers that would not have known any better. You hear that folks?? DO NOT RUN YOUR CARS INTO PEOPLE!!

:ohdear:

Enough already, can we get back to dog pee?:duck:

\\\

The obvious point I believe she was trying to make was if a pedestrian STEPS INTO a marked crosswalk vehicles are supposed to, by law, stop and let them cross even if there was plenty of time to safely drive past them before they knock them down like a bowling pin. Put a foot in crosswalk vehicles must stop. While that rarely happens it is the law and also probably why DAN makes so much money.




from The State of FL: >> Florida Statutes 316.130 – Pedestrians; traffic regulationsLawServer