Terrible Driving

When walking I tend to treat crossings as just suggestions for cars to stop. When I first came to Quesada, the crossing at the Don Carlos provided hours of entertainment with pedestrians shouting at drivers who didn't stop. I have a feeling the crossing don't seem to be as important as back in the UK.

glosman wrote:Personally I think the worst drivers around Quesada aren't the Spanish, yes they are bad but its all the rest who leave their brains at home wherever that might be.

The Spanish certainly don´t have a monopoly on bad driving, the hire car brigade who come here and are over confident, for me, cause most problems.

The Spanish certainly don´t have a monopoly on bad driving, the hire car brigade who come here and are over confident, for me, cause most problems.[/quote]


Yep, the ones that don't know the give way rules, the way to go round roundabouts, that crossing an unbroken white line will get you fined, cyclists have priority, mopeds/electric bikes can come up on your inside and so on. And they don't check any of it out before coming to a foreign country with different rules.

I always try to make eye-contact with drivers when am hoping to use a pedestrian crossing ... if i can't, I might step off the kerb, but will not venture further until they are clearly slowwing.
Apart from drivers' inattention and apathy, many of the crossings in Quesada are so in need of repainting as to be nearly invisible.
I think UK drivers are less discourteous to pedestrians in this respect, but there are so many cameras everywhere there that you are wise to assume that "Big Brother is Watching You!" (as in "1984" , not that awful Channel 4 rubbish )

Sadly it is all the fault of the British . . . . . The Victorian Big Game Hunters used Beaters to drive the Animals into small areas where they could be picked off with ease with very little skill required . . . In the modern world you just need to paint white lines across a road to group the prey into a small area . . .you know where I'm going with this . . . .
As for Mickeys initial post, hold on to that final thought, once the lunatics have been returned to the Asylum and sufficient Brexiters have tried to cross the road, Maggie May, sorry, Theresa May could call a re-vote and common sense could yet prevail

I`ve driven extensively in the UK, France, Italy and of course, Spain. By a country mile, Italian drivers are the most inconsiderate, bullying, careless, individuals on the planet......when they get behind the wheel of a car.

I fully agree Sardinia is an absolute nightmare-its like dodgems.

I think the Portuguese take the biscuit.

I was taught driving by an ex police driving instructor and the first and most important thing he told me was to treat every other person on the road(and the pavement) as a complete and utter idiot and it's a piece of advise that has stood me in good stead all of my driving life.
The best place I have ever driven was in Panama City, Central America. It's a place jam packed full with all types of vehicles (the taxis are a sight to behold) but all of the drivers are the most courteous in the whole world, if you want to cross the road (on a crossing) you just hold your hand up and cross and all the traffic will stop for you, I was quite unnerved when first trying this but after a while you get the knack. try that in Spain and see what happens,(hope you like the taste of hospital food.)
Personally I now very rarely stop at Zebra crossings in Spain because when I first arrived in Spain I stopped at a crossing in Guadamar to let an elderly gentleman cross and he was halfway across when a motor cyclist came hurtling down the road and knocked the poor old guy flying. So now to preserve life and limb I don't stop, they can wait for a break in the traffic. Having said that the Spanish do not wait at crossings they just launch themselves across the road without looking to left or right and it's the drivers fault if they get hit.

Not only do the spanish pedestrians launch themselves onto crossings but Spanish drivers launch themselves into traffic streams without signalling or looking
Countless times we have had to pull up sharply to avoid a collision
The other bugbear is the idea that you can stop anywhere at any angle as long as you put on your hazard lights