Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

In most countries that I know of (throughout Europe, the US, Japan), if you're on the road as a pedestrian, there's no law that protects you in case you get hit by a vehicle, it's considered your fault as a pedestrian.

The exceptions are street crossings or purely pedestrian streets, which have to be marked as such.

I don't expect this to be different anywhere in the world, since most paved roads are paved for vehicles, you don't really need pavement that much for pedestrians (well, you kind of need it for pedestrian with baby strollers or wheeled luggage & co).



That's definitely not the case in France, a pedestrian always have right of way over anything else, even on the highway.

"Le piéton est l'usager le plus protégé par le code de la route : il a, quoiqu'il arrive, toujours la priorité sur la chaussée"


For the highway it's a bit trickier than you're describing:

> Pour un piéton victime d’un accident, on retiendra faute inexcusable s’il «franchit des glissières de sécurité pour traverser une voie à grande circulation (alors qu’un passage souterrain existe à côté)», s’il «fait un effort particulier pour braver les règles de sécurité», ou encore s’il «contourne délibérément les obstacles lui interdisant l’accès à une voie rapide» ;

In 99% of the cases a pedestrian would have to go over a barrier to end up on a highway, as part of regular traffic.

I'm not counting someone from a broken down car on the side of the road as a pedestrian, since those are covered by different laws.


Not unexpected but TIL ! Thanks - my driver license instructor had definitely told me that pedestrians were always the most important




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: