Remember the good old days when, if you were a pedestrian trying to cross a street drivers would slow down or stop to let you do so. Nowadays they aim at you.
A few days at the beach can be so relaxing. Your columnist recently spent some time at Coolangatta, swimming between the flags and tanning on the beach in my original Paula Stafford bikini first worn while I was just a boarder at The Southport School many decades ago.
Coolangatta is still one of the more laidback parts of the glitter strip. But definitely what puts the entire Gold Coast ahead of Brisbane is the fact the city council of our southern beachside metropolis still believes in zebra crossings. The number of zebra crossings in Brisbane has dwindled in the past few years.
The cause has been an overeagerness of council administrations of both political persuasions to bend over backwards to accommodate the interest of vehicle drivers at the expense of pedestrians.
The result has been the removal of many zebra crossings and their replacement with “pedestrian refuges” in the middle of busy thoroughfares. Heaven forbid if pedestrians wanting to cross a road cause cars to stop.
But on the Gold Coast, pedestrians still get a fair go. I have not seen so many zebra crossings since the last David Attenborough documentary on ABC TV.
And guess what, motorists – locals and tourists – all knew that zebras mean pedestrians have right of way. Now that makes a pleasant change from out own metropolis.
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Last week my meanderings in my trust Land Rover took me through our city’s inner-northern suburbs. Naturally, as with any car trip around Brisbane, my route soon took me towards roadworks.
At the particular site two traffic lanes were required to merge into one. Being a polite sort of gal I allowed a small red sedan in the left lane to cross into my lane, the only lane open through the roadworks site.
As the red car moved into my lane it became obvious the driver was a young woman. Not only a young woman, but one who was driving with her left hand and texting on her mobile phone with her right one.
Did someone mention our road toll is the highest it has been for some years?
