Zu FuĂź unterwegs
You are walking along a country road with no pavement. Which side do you walk on?
Erklärung: Outside built-up areas you walk on the left where possible. You can see the car that will have to avoid you, and the driver can see your face. Inside a town either side is allowed.
You need to get to the other side of a busy street. How do you cross?
Erklärung: The law asks for exactly that: quickly, by the shortest route, at right angles to the road. Every extra second on the carriageway is a second of exposure.
There is a marked crossing twenty metres away and the road is busy. What do you do?
Erklärung: Where the traffic situation requires it, you may only cross at a junction, at a light, or on a marked crossing. A busy road with a crossing in sight is that situation.
You are standing at a zebra crossing and a car is approaching at speed. What do you do?
Erklärung: Vehicles must let you cross once you clearly want to — and a driver who has not seen you is not stopped by that duty. Make your intention visible, then check the car is really slowing.
A tram is approaching a zebra crossing you are waiting at. What do you do?
Erklärung: Rail vehicles are the exception written into the crossing rule, and a tram needs a long distance to stop even when the driver wants to.
The green figure shows and you start to cross. A car is turning into your street. What do you do?
Erklärung: The turning driver has green too, and is required to let you go — which is exactly the moment people on foot are hit, because the driver is looking for a gap in the oncoming cars.
You step out of a shop and the red-paved strip beside the pavement is in front of you. What do you do?
Erklärung: That strip is a cycle path, which is to say a road. Bicycles on it are fast and almost silent, and standing on it is where collisions with people on foot happen.
Inside a town, with no pavement, you may walk on either side of the road.
Erklärung: Inside built-up areas either side is allowed. The left-hand, face-the-traffic rule is for outside them, where speeds are higher and there is often no lighting.
In dark clothing at night a driver picks you out from about the same distance as in light clothing.
Erklärung: Not at all. Dark clothing is recognised at roughly 25 metres, light or reflective clothing at well over a hundred — the difference between a driver having time to react and not having it.
Outside a town with no pavement, which side of the road do you walk on?
Antwort:
the left, facing the traffic
Erklärung: So you see the car that has to avoid you, and the driver sees your face.
How does the law say you should cross a road?
Hattest du es gewusst?
Antwort:
briskly, by the shortest way, straight across
Erklärung: And at a junction, light or marked crossing where the traffic makes it necessary.
Which vehicle does not have to stop for you at a zebra crossing?
Antwort:
a tram
Erklärung: Rail vehicles are the exception in the crossing rule, and they cannot stop quickly anyway.
Who does this signal apply to?
Antwort:
people on foot only
Erklärung: Not cyclists — that changed in 2017 — and not drivers.
What does the German word "Gehweg" mean?
Antwort:
pavement
Erklärung: The surface you belong on, and the one an adult on a bicycle does not.
What is a "Zebrastreifen"?
Antwort:
a marked pedestrian crossing
Erklärung: White stripes on the road and a blue square sign beside it. Officially a Fußgängerüberweg.
From roughly how far away is someone in dark clothing seen at night?
Antwort:
about 25 metres
Erklärung: Light or reflective clothing pushes it past a hundred metres.