r/Glasgow Tools

Title
Author	eenbiertje
Comment	It's deeply cultural and ingrained behaviour in the UK. Similar to the US. It comes down to 80 years of infrastructure planning where driver convenience was the priority, over and above any other considerations. Things are beginning to change. As another reply says, the highway code has been changed just this month to give pedestrians formal right-of-way when crossing side roads. Something which should always have been the case frankly. If a driver does this now, they're committing a driving offence. Other changes are slowly being made to the physical design of roads and streets themselves, to discourage speeding or dangerous driving. Whether slimming down roads by taking away excessive road space and giving it over to wider pavements or There is talk also of Glasgow rolling out zebra crossings across a large number of side street junction points over the next few years. I think part of the issue with zebra crossings meaning nothing to drivers here is that they're so rare. Once they become present everywhere in the city, and pedestrians get into the habit of making use of them confidently (as they should, and as people do in other European countries), I think you'll see driver behaviour change.
Reddit Link	https://www.reddit.com/r/glasgow/comments/s3q437/pedestrians/hsmf9p3/
Created	Fri 14th Jan 2022 12:55pm
Status	normal ()

It's deeply cultural and ingrained behaviour in the UK. Similar to the US.

It comes down to 80 years of infrastructure planning where driver convenience was the priority, over and above any other considerations.

Things are beginning to change. As another reply says, the highway code has been changed just this month to give pedestrians formal right-of-way when crossing side roads. Something which should always have been the case frankly. If a driver does this now, they're committing a driving offence.

Other changes are slowly being made to the physical design of roads and streets themselves, to discourage speeding or dangerous driving. Whether slimming down roads by taking away excessive road space and giving it over to wider pavements or

There is talk also of Glasgow rolling out zebra crossings across a large number of side street junction points over the next few years.

I think part of the issue with zebra crossings meaning nothing to drivers here is that they're so rare. Once they become present everywhere in the city, and pedestrians get into the habit of making use of them confidently (as they should, and as people do in other European countries), I think you'll see driver behaviour change.