There has been a lot of work in recent times to create shared path crossings over roads. This is where both pedestrians and cyclists have priority across a road, and it is marked with a GIVE WAY sign and supplementary ‘to 🚶♀️& 🚲’ sign. This is mainly to get around the Road Rule that forbids riding a bike over a Pedestrian (Zebra) Crossing.
This got us thinking, can we just change the Road Rules to allow us to ride our bikes over Pedestrian (Zebra) Crossings and Wombat Crossings (raised zebra crossings)? Especially if they connect Shared Paths. The common practice is to do it anyway (see video below), and we don’t know of any enforcement of this Road Rule.
There are a few caveats to this idea:
– Sight distances would need to be checked at the Pedestrian (Zebra) crossings and adjustments made to vehicle speeds, cyclists speeds or the sight triangle to accommodate the faster approach of the cyclists.
– Cyclists were managed in areas/times of high pedestrian activity so as not to be a hazard to pedestrians.
What are your thoughts?