Recently I have noticed that France seems to have a fresh zeal for pedestrian crossings in their towns and villages.As I drove through the villages along the D50 on my return from Tours recently I could not help but be drawn to the fact that the number of crossings seemed inappropriate to the potential demand for them. I saw no-one using any of them, indeed I only saw one person crossing the road between Tours and Ligueil and he did not use the nearby crossing. The ones in Liguueil were the only ones I saw used. I shouldn't have been surprised as we all know its rare to see anyone on the streets in many of the villages anyway. Almost all our guests at our houses ask us "Where are all the people?" we explain it away with by fact that most of these rural villages have an elderly population who tend to stay indoors for most of the time. Either that or the Martians have 'beamed' them all up!
Sadly my thinking along these lines (black and white) got me noticing them more and more - did you know for example that between the town centre and out of town shopping at Yzeures-sur-Creuse here in the Loire Valley there are 9, yes 9, crossings - on a one kilometre stretch of road - why?
Footnote:
Here is a photograph from wikipedia of probably the most famous zebra crossing in the world - I, like many others have taken time out during a London visit to walk across it.
BUT why do they now need them!! It is now law in France that if you see someone waiting to cross the road you have to stop and let them cross. If you don't you can be heavy fined..€135 .. and 4 points.. Unless.. The only exception is where there is a designated pedestrian crossing less than 50m away. Mind blowing I say...
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