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I am not a parent, but look right, look left and look left again was drilled into me as a kid in the 1960s - and even so, I still got hit by a car at age seven and had a serious head injury as a result. I assure you I became more attentive after that.
Is this still taught?
I ask because I have several times been "stuck" behind school buses dropping kids off at the end of the day, on rural roads and highways where the kids are dropped off on both sides of the road from the same bus. Usually these are roads with 55 mph limits, sometimes 45 mph. I see this a LOT because much of my work takes me to rural areas, where kids run across the road to their houses after the bus stops. I've sat and observed it scores, if not hundreds, of times.
What I have observed: Without exception, child after child darts across the road without even glancing from side to side at the road at traffic. They are oblivious to what is in the road. Apparently they expect that because the bus stopped and the stop sign thingie is displayed, they are somehow magically safe.
But not all drivers pay attention to school buses; sometimes with tragic results and a child is hit and killed.
This just doesn't seem like behaviour or training that encourages self preservation or responsibility. So I guess that is my only question: is this still taught to kids?
We walk a lot in the city so I'm a driller. I actually had to undrill myself because when I was a kid we did the opposite. Not easy.
I also drill to watch for turning traffic in a crosswalk. I myself nearly got hit a few months ago when a guy turning didn't see me at all, even though I was right in the middle of the road. He certainly heard me, and my choice language, though.
But when most drivers are barely looking at the road, pedestrians will always be at risk.
Absolutely, I agree!
That was my point, and my question. Where I live (SE MI USA) children are apparently not trained to take any responsibility for their own safety. I'm wondering if this is regional or what.
If I had a dash cam....since I've moved to the city almost every day I'm getting on the breaks or the horn because some one decides to mindlessly wander into traffic to cross the road, until you blast them with the horn than they act "Oh I didn't see the line of traffic hurdling at going 40 mph". I saw it once where this lady was with about 6 kids waiting to cross the road at the intersection of a four lane high traffic road. Three of them took off in a North East direction through the middle of the intersection, two of the younger ones took off with mom in an Easterly direction, then the other two took off in the intersection kind of circled around through the intersection and doubled back to mom. Even my wife has a horrible habit of not paying attention to traffic in parking lots.
I used to live in the country and the roads were pretty much unmarked and wide open so we had it beat into us to look both ways. It seems the people in the bigger cities have a bit of an attitude that you have to stop for me, I'm impervious to the laws of physics.
I swear where I live, I see more adults do this than kids, it seems. We do drill the look both ways before crossing into our kids... but still, they don't always do this. I imagine I did not always do this when I was their age either. I suspect it is still being taught by most parents everywhere.
I don't think it's taught much at all. The school bus thing drives me nuts. I see kids getting off the bus and wandering across the road without looking all the time.
The worst is when a parent is waiting on the opposite side of the road for this kid. And the kid just ambles off the bus, in front of the bus and crosses without looking and mom makes no attempt to tell the kid to stop and look. Sure mom can see the road, but a careless driver can come over a hill or come upon & ignore the bus very quickly. You just never know.
No one seems to look anymore from kids to adults. I expect that as a driver and wait.
When I was a kid they told us the whole look left, right, and left again thing. My dad used to talk about looking behind you for a car turning right before you cross a street, and it's been mighty helpful. Most people turning right only look for other cars and not pedestrians.
Last edited by psr13; 07-31-2013 at 11:51 AM..
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