I've visited London annually for 38 years and no matter how familiar i am with the city i seem to always at least lapse into my drive on the right mentality and start stepping off the curb crossing streets without looking the correct way for traffic -often it seems speeding mammoth red buses coming my way.

Though i've never come really close to getting hit i wonder how many non-British tourists do - by looking the wrong way!
Has anyone been hit?

Even at the Zebra stripes - those blinking yellow lights at crosswalks where traffic is supposed to yield to you, crossing sometimes seems dicey.

Indeed Harvard Professor John Mack, a renown UFO believer recently was killed crossing at a London zebrea strip crossing. That he was a featured speaker at a lunatic UFO conference or perhaps it was late night should not factor into his death.

I wonder if there are stats on folks hurt or killed at zebra striped or if foreigners are more likely to be hit crossing streets.
Anyway, always look both ways when crossing London streets.

I wondered this same thing last week while we were in London. We've been 6x's and I still look down to read the "look left" or "look right" painted on the road just to be sure I'm not killed.
They had to put bridges over the Las Vegas strip because tourist kept getting hit. I wonder about London.

Kind of like MIND THE GAP. Something else to look for (and enjoy). Halfpint

As a judge once said "There are two sorts of pedestrians: the quick and the dead".

But you're right. We were all brought up on the principle "Look right, look left, look right again - and don't dither in the middle of the road". My mother nearly had a heart attack once when a visiting French friend stopped in the middle of crossing Haymarket to admire the view....

Since we drive on the left here, it's frightening how close many tourists come to getting hit but most who live here are prepared for it.

Those flashing lights in London really do change quickly & you better get across fast because the cars seem to be really itching to get going.

I'm convinced the difference is ingrained culturally. In the UK drivers consider that they have right of way and pedestrians need to get out of the way as quickly as possible!
Drivers seem more lenient towards pedestrians in the US.

When my younger sister was in London a couple of years ago she had a close call herself and my other sister had to pull her back onto the street.. I do know that when they were there my sister did see someone (probably a tourist) get struck by a cab.. they didn't look both ways before crossing the street. Needless to say after that she said she always looked.

Pal,

After 38 years I bet you NEVER forget when payday rolls around.

I will say a prayer for you at Lourdes, Buddy.

"Drivers seem more lenient towards pedestrians in the US."

That would be because pedestrians have the right of way by law in the U.S.

As much as possible, I let the people around me start the walk across the street, and I follow their lead. If someone gets hit, it'll be them.

I look down at the "look left" or "look right" signs all the time. Why not? That's why they painted them!

topping now, for London newbies.....

Don't really get this. Because of one way streets traffic could be coming from the right or the left. I think it may be just lapse of concentration. I would be pretty sure most pedestrian injuries in London, as in any other city, would be to locals. London drivers are not attempting to kill anyone.
My experience of professors has been that some of them are often "preoccupied".

John Mack was killed by a drunken driver, who was subsequently imprisoned for the offence. I'm not aware drunk rivers are a uniquely British phenomenon.

Pedestrians have PRIORITY only at controlled crossing when the lights are on their side and at zebra crossings always. They have RIGHT OF WAY (not at all the same thing, but the right to cross the road) practically everywhere, at all times.

This means Britons in less tolerant societies - especially those like Atlanta where undisciplined thugs man the police force - can get beaten up for the heinous offence of crossing the road without someone's permission. For a reasonably balanced review of this problem see:

http://timescolumns.typepad.com/stot...a_in_the_.html

Fair enough: we understand rights get suspended in foreign parts. But what then happens is that when all the huddled masses come to London, they hang round pedestrian crossings, even when the road's clear, waiting till Authority tells them it's OK. Presumably assuming we're policed by the same Gestapo they have back home

The result is a lot of very pissed off Londoners, unable to fight their way through the feckless hordes who've clearly had common sense conditioned out of them.

Statistics show surprisingly few cases of assault by my fellow citizens on these social nuisances. Our tolerance extends even to these lackspittles.

But don't bank on it. We snap sooner or later when we're desperate to catch a train or deposit a cheque before cutoff time. Conforming here to your country's authoritarianism can be just as health-hazardous as not looking both ways.

it's a chicken match...drivers do not need to stop in a zebra crossing until the pedestrian is IN the crosswalk. therefore, stopping for someone hesitating or paused on the pavement in front of the crossing is a matter of courtesy only. in busy places like london, drivers tend to take the rules literally (or they would never get anywhere). they go full speed ahead until you are actually in the crossing.

most foreigners are not confident at zebra crossing - eg don't realise they have the right of way or live in places where pedestrians are second class citizens. they tend to wait until all is clear. so, it is just a presumption but i would guess that more local pedestrians are injured whilst crossing streets at zebra crossings....as they more readily participate in the game of chicken with drivers.

more of a worry are foreign drivers who may not be aware of the rules around these crossings.

the idea that drivers in the US have more respect for pedestrians (and bicyclists for that matter) is just plain rubbish.

"the idea that drivers in the US have more respect for pedestrians (and bicyclists for that matter) is just plain rubbish."

Totally disagree.

I was gobsmacked and confused during a recent trip to Nevada at the frequency with which cars would stop because I was about to cross the road. Always in circumstances where even in the Cotswolds no driver would slow down, and where a London driver would face arrest for dangerous driving (or assault by the drivers behind) if he stopped.

It might have been some local ordinance, but I found pretty much the sme thing coming through smallish-town California on the way back. I'm sure I've never encountered it in New York, of course - though even there, drivers are often less aggressive than here.

It has nothing to do with UK vs US. Simply depends on density of traffic (both vehicular and pedestrian). In busy cities like NYC with lots of both, drivers are much less tolerant of pedestrians simply because if you let everybody on the sidewalk cross first, all traffic on Manhattan will come to a halt.

Compare that to where I live, Houston. We have lots of vehicular traffic, but zero pedestrian ones. So, if a driver sees something even on the sidewalk, they slow down, and likely will let him/her cross first. It's not going to affect vehicular traffic by much, and a pedestrian is very easy to spot here.

>>>>>
even in the Cotswolds no driver would slow down
>>>>>

i'm not sure why you say 'even in the Cotswolds'. i find the drivers in the Cotswolds (as i've posted on occasion) to be some of the most aggressive in britain. i attribute this to the fact that most are not real 'country folk'. the number of aggressive SUV drivers contrasts with the ostensibly country airs. well, when i say 'the most aggressive', i think it's two things, first, they APPEAR more aggressive due to their contrast with the environment, and secondly, there are fewer traffic calming measures in these parts. real city people also behave according to more rules and codes. the cotswold suburban types display the assertiveness of the city with the lawlessness of the country...the result is the worst of both worlds.

anyway for your other point, america is a big place and it's hard to generalise on the drivers but it's good to see that you had a good experience recently. my experience has been that in the uk, drivers, although assertive, do realise that they must share the road with bicycles, pedestrians, horses, milk floats, etc. whereas in america, i have found that driver tend more to behave as they own the road with others expected to get out of the way. i also have found more 'emotion' in the driving process.

i do tend to disagree with rkkwan...i've found in the US that city drivers are assertive but more importantly show more respect to pedestrians than, for example, drivers in texas who are some of the worst. when on assignment in texas i did some riding with a bicycle club...MANY drivers were openly hostile and there were some serious threats were made. since we regularly used the same route (in the hill country), we were told by 'the law' that to avoid trouble with the locals, we should find somewhere else to ride. this was way out in the country.

In the Cotswolds they stop for sheep however!