I am writing from Bangkok. I am on a business trip and staying in the same hotel from my first trip to Asia in 1990. But details of that surreal experience are another story altogether.
One thing Tess and I always warn friends and family about when they visit Hong Kong, is that pedestrians DO NOT have the right-of-way… vehicles do… and the driving culture in Hong Kong fully endorses that reality. The roads in Hong Kong are dangerous because drivers expect that pedestrians will actively avoid cars. In general people do – peds KNOW only to cross on "Walk" signals or when the coast is clear. Contrast this with Canada, where there are a lot more rules in place that give pedestrians the right-of-way. I remember one day walking down a sidewalk in Vancouver while apartment hunting. I backed up to a curb to get a better vantage point of an apartment building. As my gaze returned to the ground I noticed traffic had stopped to let me cross the street… I wasn’t even at an intersection or a crosswalk or even facing the street!
The point of all this… I just got off the phone with Tess, who reported that Sebastian stooped to new lows of not listening today, dashed out into the street, and nearly got himself struck by a car. Tess said it was a terrifying experience. The good news – he is safe and unharmed. The bad news, Sebastian doesn’t think he did anything wrong: he thinks he has the right of way or that he is living in Canada.
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4 Replies to “Sebastian the Naughty Pedestrian”
Canada is becoming an unsafe place for pedestrians. I live in the beautiful capital of BC and many of the crosswalks have been switched to pedestrian controlled with flashing lights both on the road and above the road, but there are still many that aren’t. I stopped for a ped the other day and saw a young driver (N-novice) pass me on the outside lane and almost hit the girl. Good thing she knew to slow down and look as she was walking in front of my car.
I am glad to hear that Sebastian is ok. It is hard for young children to comprehend that a vehicle can hurt/kill them. You might want to find a “child” friendly experiment that will give Sebastion an idea of the destruction a vehicle can do, it is easier to relate to when young children have something to compare it to.
In NZ pedestrians don’t have the right of way either. A friend of mine had a similar experience with her little boy and the way that she taught him was while they were together on the footpath (what you call sidewalk) she placed a teddy (not a special one) out on the road and her little boy saw a car run over it. It got very damaged. From there they were able to talk about the dangers of roads. Is that worth trying with Seb?
That has got to be the single most scariest thing in the world to go thru… A guy at Union wathc his son get hit and killed by a bus in Hong Kong!!!! As harsh as it sounds….a kid leash???? strap him in the stroller until he gets it??? You can never be too saftely nazi on the streets of Hong Kong
Trinie has a good idea. my babysitter’s older son is properly afraid of cars because he saw a soda can get run over and flattened (it wasn’t staged, but it did do the job). i think i need to stage something similar for Sagan as he doesn’t understand why he has to keep his hands on the car or shopping cart in parking lots. it’s even harder for him to understand because our neighborhood doesn’t have sidewalks, so when we go for a walk we HAVE to be in the street, albeit a quiet neighborhood street. it must be so confusing being three. i’m very glad Seb is okay. hug him tightly for me.