The FINANCIAL — If you try to cross any busy road in Tbilisi, you’re sure to face a big challenge. Drivers almost never give pedestrians the right of way. And if one of them does, the other drivers behind them start honking their horns until the flow of traffic resumes.
Everyone in Georgia agrees that traffic in Tbilisi is terrible. Even very experienced drivers say that it’s a challenge to get used to driving in Tbilisi. Drivers experience problems but pedestrians have even more difficulties. Tourists complain about this a lot as well. They are used to and expect drivers to give way to them, but with little hope here.
“We needed to cross a busy road, but on this particular road, there are no stop signs, traffic lights, overpasses or underpasses,” American Keith Kenny shared his Georgian experience on his blog recently. “After waiting unsuccessfully for traffic to slow, Susanna and I hustled halfway across and stood on the standard two yellow lines indicating a no passing zone. We stood there trembling as cars zoomed by. When we got to the other side, Susanna made me promise never to do that again. I promised.”
In most countries pedestrians have the right of way at places which are unregulated and there are no traffic lights or stop signs. But in Georgia there is no law which makes drivers stop and let pedestrians cross. As there is no law, drivers think there is no need to do it. Unlike in Georgia, in the majority of other countries such an attitude is considered impolite. But in Georgia drivers don’t care about that. They know how difficult it is as regardless of whether you have a car sometimes everyone has to cross the street, but still they don’t care.
Georgians claim they don’t like regulations and limitations. However since the use of seatbelts became mandatory, 98 percent of drivers use them, whereas before the new regulation came in to force only several drivers did. If giving the right of way to pedestrians becomes a law, the vast majority of drivers will do it. But until then they don’t think it necessary to express such politeness.
Currently the Georgian Codex about Traffic Safety and Traffic Rules regulates vehicles’ and pedestrians’ movement in the streets.
According to the Georgian Codex (article 27, 32, 33) a car driver has to give a pedestrian or bicycle right of way when the driver is starting to move or is turning left or right and the pedestrian is moving on that roadway. Car drivers have to give right of way to pedestrians when the traffic lights are changing from green but the pedestrian hasn’t finished crossing yet. A car driver has to wait until he/she has crossed the road.
But there is no regulation about giving the right of way to pedestrians and bicycles at places where traffic control signals are not in place or are not in operation.
Unlike cars, the drivers of passenger transport vehicles have to give pedestrians the right of way at unregulated places. However they usually don’t obey the regulation. According to the Codex if a passenger transport vehicle stops to give way to a pedestrian, car drivers can still continue moving. They don’t have to give the right of way (and they generally don’t).
The situation is significantly different in Western countries. Georgians want to be like Europeans, but they don’t do things like Europeans do. President Saakashvili repeated the words “I’m a Georgian and therefore I’m a European” when Nikolas Sarkozy, the President of France, visited Georgia a short while ago. However the reality is sometimes different. Georgia has to have a law about giving pedestrians the right of way. But until there is such a law, Georgians will continue giving pedestrians the right of way according to individual drivers’ culture, politeness and goodwill.
According to the Motor Vehicle Act of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, the driver of a vehicle must yield the right of way to a pedestrian where traffic control signals are not in place or not in operation, when the pedestrian is crossing a highway on a crosswalk and the pedestrian is on the half of the highway on which the vehicle is travelling, or is approaching so closely from the other half of the highway that he or she is in danger.
Most of the states of the USA have similar regulations to Canada. For example, in Arizona if traffic control signals are not in place or are not in operation, the driver of a vehicle shall yield the right-of-way, slowing down or stopping if need be in order to yield, to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within a crosswalk when the pedestrian is on the half of the roadway on which the vehicle is traveling or when the pedestrian is approaching so closely from the opposite half of the roadway as to be in danger. A pedestrian shall not suddenly leave any curb or other place of safety and walk or run into the path of a vehicle that is so close that it is impossible for the driver to yield.
Washington State Pedestrian Laws say that the operator of an approaching vehicle shall stop and remain stopped to allow a pedestrian or bicycle to cross the roadway within an unmarked or marked crosswalk when the pedestrian or bicycle is upon or within one lane of the half of the roadway upon which the vehicle is traveling or onto which it is turning. For purposes of this section “half of the roadway” means all traffic lanes carrying traffic in one direction of travel, and includes the entire width of a one-way roadway.
In Pennsylvania when traffic-control signals are not in place or not in operation, the driver of a vehicle shall yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within any marked crosswalk or within any unmarked crosswalk at an intersection.
Russia has the same regulations. The driver of a vehicle shall give the right of way to pedestrians crossing the roadway, which is unregulated. They must slow down or stop moving until the pedestrians cross the roadway.
Georgian pedestrians and tourists in the country await similar regulations to be imposed which shall help to greatly improve road traffic safety.
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