Eric Thompson: Take a walk on the wild side

Both sides need to obey the road rules or a mess ensues. Photo / APN

In last week's column I mentioned how pedestrians have abandoned the footpath for public roads. It would appear I have touched a nerve - on both sides of the discussion.

One reader replying to the nzherald.co.nz website said he was looking forward to a missive on cars that park on footpaths.

I will look into it, but in the meantime if pedestrians continue to use the road as a place to walk I can't see the issue in using the footpath, on occasion of course, to park the car.

And before anyone thinks I actually mean it, doing both is probably illegal, so there.

Many readers emailed with their own examples of pedestrians and cars causing mayhem. A selection follows. Those who emailed supplied contact details.

* On Saturday night in Kingsland I saw a prime example of the kind of thing that you were talking about. It's wet, it's dark, she's wearing black and she's at a pedestrian crossing (traffic lights). Having decided she has waited long enough she meanders across the road, forcing at least four cars to come to a stop. And then she gives me the finger when I use my horn. In some places it is an offence to cross the road without using the crossing in the appropriate way. Perhaps we need to do the same here?

* Until today I've never heard of you. Therefore I apologise if you were trying to be cynical and replicate the thoughts of old-fashioned car drivers who believe they are the only ones allowed to use the roads, especially those who have lived in rural areas for more than five years. If you were being satirical, you hit the bullseye - if not, your inflammatory comments show how outdated you really are.

I am a car driver, travel to work on a 50cc scooter and I am a recreational cyclist. Yes, I wear lycra and yes, I ride on the roads, sometimes in rural areas. I encounter drivers like you all the time, too self-important to slow down for 50m and pass with care.

All you're really proving is that you have never travelled, never seen how educated drivers in other countries treat other road users. (I lived abroad for 27 years in four different countries, including Europe).

You're obviously old, so maybe it's just a matter of waiting you out - you'll only hold on to your licence for so long. The time when self-obsessed dinosaurs like yourself are gone isn't too far off - I can't wait.

* I agree with a lot of what you have to say. However, there is another side to the story and that is the carelessness and thoughtlessness of drivers who have no respect for the footpath.

As a father on a school walking bus, I am amazed at the dangers our children have to endure almost every morning: drivers who reverse rapidly out of their driveways across the footpath, often in large four-wheel-drives with little view of what is behind; cars parked on the footpath so that pedestrians have to walk on the road; large buses and trucks that drive over the kerb when cutting corners. The "ignorant, the arrogant, the self-anointed, the delusional and the plain dumb" are not just pedestrians, many of them are drivers as well.

* I have just read your article. I absolutely loved it, and you hit the nail right on the head with regards to the ignorant, the arrogant, self-anointed, the delusional and the absolutely plain dumb people out there.

* I enjoyed your article, although I am a little tired of the "cyclist-lycra-Le Tour cliches. I don't cycle along Tamaki Drive in the weekends as it's too damn dangerous.

I'm noticing more and more people "running the streets" in Remuera and Ellerslie lately. Most of them are out in the early mornings (6am to 6.30am). I've been informed by friends "into running" that the roads are easier on your joints thanks to the pavement construction (hotmix, layers of GAP40), hence the desire to run on the road. I did ask them if it was more comfortable than, say, running into a Mazda, but they ignored me.

* You would have loved the jogger running along Shore Rd who got into a screaming match as he ran across the entrance of Arney Rd in front of a car turning, and then I saw him 15 minutes later screaming at a courier driver for pulling out in front of him on Broadway, all the while running on the road. It was a typical case of short man syndrome as well.

* I read your article this morning. So far this year I have nearly flattened two errant pedestrians, one on the roundabout next to Dick Smith in Onehunga, a young lady approximately 18 with her iPod earphones on, looked left - not right - and stepped out in front of me.

She is only alive because I had a feeling that she had not seen me so I was able to brake and avoid her. All I got in return was a mouthful of abuse and several rude gestures when I sounded the horn.

* I've read your weekly column in the Herald with interest for your views on motoring. I've noticed that in New Zealand these are the facts:

1. 95 per cent of drivers are rubbish.

2. Speed cameras are blatant revenue-gathering for a system too lazy or poor to invest in decent driver training and education.

3. If you buy a Hyundai your wife will leave you, your dog will disown you, and the world as you know it will end.

Keep up the good work.

There you go, folks, both sides of the coin. But if pedestrians don't get back on the footpath, the Sibyl's prophesy in the Aeneid, "wars, terrible wars, and the Tiber foaming with much blood" could easily be "driver rage, pedestrian rage, and the roads foaming with much blood".