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I don't know what it's like now but when I lived it Melbourne I witnessed several hair raising moments when drivers blew past passengers getting off.
I also do not recall anyone ever being encouraged to step out on to the road to get cars to stop! That's lunacy if true. Unless I misheard.
It never occurred to me that maybe many of the near misses were by out-of-towners. I think that's unlikely. Who knows.
I also do not recall anyone ever being encouraged to step out on to the road to get cars to stop! That’s lunacy if true. Unless I misheard.
I might also have misheard it, but I recall being confused by the same section you were. In my case, I heard it not as something people are actively encouraged to do, but as a learned behaviour that's somehow meant to make things safer. Only, I'm not sure how that's supposed to work...
edit: ok I just rewatched. He said
When boarding from the kerbside, the rules do say you should wait for the tram to stop before stepping onto the road, however in reality the accepted normal practice is to step out into the lane as the tram is approaching, because this forces the cars to stop.
So, I misunderstood it because I thought it was talking about when getting off the tram. Like, swing out of the tram as it's slowing down. And I was thoroughly confused how that would help anything. Probably because...it wouldn't.
But when doing it while getting on the tram, that kinda makes sense actually. You wouldn't step out right in front of a fast-moving car, but if you make it very visibly obvious you're about to step out when there's a car further away that looks like it might be headed in your direction, it can see you're there and stop in time.
I do a very similar thing all the time wherever I am, when crossing side streets, zebra crossings, etc. Places where the car is supposed to stop to give way, but where there's a high frequency that they won't actually do it. I make every effort to look like I'm about to step out in front of them without caring, while being hyper-aware and ready to stop or step back if they don't actually give way as they're required to. It nearly always works: people who weren't going to give way if I had slowed down and acted visibly cautious as most pedestrians do, end up following the law when it looks like I'm forcing them to.
I wait for a full stop. Even when the light goes green for pedestrians I wait and check the cars have stopped on both sides. I'm always amazed how confident people are that a tonne or two of flying metal they haven't checked to make sure isn't there wont flatten them. As if a red light means anything to physics.
My problem is that by doing that, you reward those drivers who deliberately try to take advantage and ignore the law.
Because they'll speed around the corner and go on with their day, probably not even realising they did anything wrong. What I do is still safe: I know I won't be in the way if they do keep speeding through. But it means if they try to speed through, they're gonna get one hell of a fright in the process.
Nope. Even when a car stops at a pedestrian crossing that doesn't have pedestrian lights or a zebra crossing (like a roundabout for example), if I cannot see the driver through the windshield and make eye contact then I will wave them through and try to signal that I cannot see them and sometimes will even mouth out, say or even shout 'I cannot see you'. Even when I know they are sitting there waving me on, if I cannot see them I won't budge.
then I will wave them through
As both a driver and a pedestrian I absolutely hate when people do this. As a driver, I'm trying to do the right thing. People need to follow the law and give way when they're required to give way. That keeps everything predictable, and predictable is safe. (There are certainly times when it's appropriate to break the letter of the law, especially as a pedestrian or cyclist. But those times are basically "when there's nothing a driver has to do to avoid even coming close to you.")
As a pedestrian, I hate it because it just reinforces motornormacy and car supremacy, as though there isn't already enough in our society that does that. In the long run, all it does is make things less safe for pedestrians, because it increases the chances that the next driver will just go through without even trying to give way.
Most of the time I can make eye contact with drivers, I see the hand wave or whatever and everything works out. But for the small number of times I can't then I'm not going to step out in front of a machine that can seriously injure me or worse from a stand still.
I've seen someone hit getting off the tram and it's really, really fucked up.
I don't get why drivers think they're so fucking important that they can risk someone's life just so they can keep texting on their fucking phone instead of looking ahead.
