In Rome, I am a member of a rare and endangered species group of people in Rome. I am a cyclist!
Cycling for most Italians is a sport and not a means of transport and I am reminded of this everyday in a city like Rome, where it is almost impossible to find any facility for cyclists.
But cycling is not the subject of this missive. I have just got back from the centre where I witnessed yet another potentially serious incident on a zebra crossing. Two foreigners had made the mistake of assuming that cars would automatically stop for them when they were actually in the process of walking aross the crossing. Quite the contray. One driver actually raced in front of them and had the cheek to beep his horn, as if it was they and not he who was comitting a transgression. In most of Italy, Zebra crossings are nothing more than a way of decorating an otherwise drab road surface; they do not promise the safety that they offer in most other counties.
There is no reliable way to cross the road in Rome. Some guidebooks recommend the use of a nun. But even in the holy city, where the sisters are in abundance, one cannot always wait for one to turn up! I always take my life into my hands and walk across boldly, staring all the while at the oncoming traffic. Never hesitate or show fear of any kind.
If you think traffic lights are any safer, let me pass on a word of advice I read in an Italian newspaper. In Milan traffic lights are an instruction, in Rome a suggestion, in Naples they are fairy lights!
Good luck and take care.
Posts: 88 | Location: Rome and Cambridge | Registered: 16 March 2004
David -- your post is just so wrong in so many ways, and you know it. There are many stereotypes about Italy and Rome, and to be frank, they aren't that funny.
quote:Originally posted by SteveS: There are many stereotypes about Italy and Rome, and to be frank, they aren't that funny.
To a degree. In Milano the right way to cfross at zebra crossing (and sometimes at traffic lights too) is to stare down the oncoming traffic making sure you look "badder" than... this.
Steve, my experience in 13 years in Italy is that David is right, although I have occasionally been pleasantly surprised in Rome. I have also been nearly killed on many occasions in Rome and Milan. David's right to warn people.
Alice, great minds think alike... Lacking claws, I sometimes carry an umbrella or other weapon, and look ready to use it on their shiny paintwork. Sometimes I wave my arms out in the road to get their attention, or fold my arms and glare at them. Occasionally that even works.
I've been pleasantly surprised to find that many motorists in Lecco are well-behaved and actually do stop when you just look like you're thinking of crossing. However, the likelihood of a driver stopping is inversely proportional to the size/cost of the car he's driving - does driving a Mercedes automatically turn a person into a jerk? As far as I can tell, the answer is yes.
quote:Originally posted by Deirdre: ROTFL Alice, great minds think alike... Lacking claws, I sometimes carry an umbrella or other weapon, and look ready to use it on their shiny paintwork.
My two favorite techniques (apart from the glaring one) are: - whe someone stops the car at a traffic light in the middle of the crossing, rap loudly on the hood, and when I have the attention of the driver calmly tell him "Hey, this is a pedestrain crossing: people are supposed to walk here, not to climb over cars" (Hey, questo è un passaggio pedonale, la gente ci cammina, non ci scavalca le auto); - when someone unneedlessly uses the horn, cry out at the top of my lungs "Honk your own [CENSURA] hole!" (Ma strombazzati il buco del [CENSURA]).
quote:Originally posted by Amy: So. Anyone have some useful advice for those who wish to cross the street in Rome-- whether we be nuns, mercedes drivers, or foreigners?
Glare, growl and pay LOTS of attention... Isn't it enough? ^___^
I have just copied this thread into my Palm because I am sure those phrases are not on my Pimsleur CD's. Perhaps Alice could be recruited to be in charge of a sub-category of Italian Language: How to sound Italian even though you look like an Armani-clad American.
"I am a Southerner. I like the feel of these words. I could no more be otherwise than I could shed my outer skin or change the color of my eyes." Willie Morris
Posts: 1456 | Location: on the Alabama River | Registered: 22 July 2002
My solution? Adopt-an-Italian at a crosswalk. Even if your prey starts treating you like a masher, the traffic stops to watch (and you can always apologize once you've reached the other side.)
Posts: 2054 | Location: Suburban Philadelphia | Registered: 08 July 2002
The driving behavior in Rome might have improved only recently. I was told by one of my tour guides in Rome that the "point system" was recently introduced? I was told that the point system was used to keep track of a driver's accident rate and make him/her pay a higher rate? Am I mixing myself up again? Anyway, I can't recall hearing a car horn in Rome. Is that unusual? Italian drivers, when provoked, choose to cut you off very closely on the highway. I find that mildly amusing. When crossing the street, unlike in Anglo Saxon countries where the cars slow down to acknowledge the pedestrians, the cars in Italy will proceed at their normal speed, until they come very close to you. So if you hesitate when crossing, the cars will just zoom by in front of you. It's really not too bad compared to many other parts of world. For proof, do a google search on Vietnam and "Crossing roads".
My advice, is to cross at the lights. You can see the traffic is stopped and then you can cross safely. Even if you have to walk out of your way to do this - it is the best way to cross the street.
On this last trip (Christmas) to Rome, when I was walking with a cane, cars stopped for me crossing the street all the time!! This has never happened before! So we were able to use the zebra crossing. But I don't recommend injuring your back to make crossing the road easier.
I aced my college physics so my way of crossing is always to remember that a car at 40mph weighing 3000# will not feel much at all while it accelerated me, at 190# and 4mph to approximately 39 or so mph. In otherwords, I assume I am fair game if not an actual target. Remember that I live near DC where defensive walking is the only way for us meer mortals to live with dangerous lobyists driving the Lexi and Mercedes. In other words, when you break into a run, be sure... be very sure....
A few years ago I stayed in an apartment near the Forum, and every day I would review my strategy for crossing the Piazza Venezia, which is a nightmare. I usually would plot out a route via side streets to avoid the piazza.
I go to the crosswalk and stare down the cars. I'm a pretty big guy, and I can look pretty intimidating. In fact, I think if I got hit by a Fiat Cinquecento, the car would suffer more damage than I would.
Posts: 291 | Location: Takoma Park, Maryland, USA | Registered: 09 October 2003
The best thing to do when crossing at a cross walk is to keep a steady pace. Yes, the cars SHOULD stop, but in practice, they only avoid. They see that you are crossing and they will speed up or slow down just enough so that they can pass over the cross walk in front of you or just behind you. As you are walking over the cross walk and you see the vehichle coming towards you and you start to run or stop, this is when the accidents happen. They were in the process of avoiding you, but your sudden change in forward motion messed up their avoidance plan.
Alice's concept of the "stare down" is also a good thing to use when crossing the street.
Why would a pedestrian, anywhere, not yield to the oncoming cars? Like Dean, I aced college physics - and trust me, even if it just a Fiat 500, the pedestrian will suffer far more than the automobile in a collision. The physics of this holds true in Rome, Istanbul or Des Moines, Iowa.
quote:Originally posted by Bill & Patty Sutherland: Why would a pedestrian, anywhere, not yield to the oncoming cars?
IMHO, if you yield to the car, you might as well never think about crossing the street. Some intersections, such as Piazza Venezia, have a constant flow of traffic. If you yield at the cross walk, you will never find a break in the traffic to allow you to cross.
I'm with Tony here. I just start crossing and keep moving steadily, doing my best to look confident rather than terrified.
I first tried this decades ago in Paris, when it became clear that otherwise I was going to spend my life at the Arc de Triomphe. Still remember the feeling that a particular car was going to hit me at my left leg. But it avoided me, and I've been crossing that way ever since. Needed it two years ago when I stayed at a hotel between Piazza Navona and the Tiber.....
Bill Bryson recommends in one of his books (can't remember which one) that you wait until a group (what's the collective noun here?) of nuns want to cross the road and then you "cling to them like a wet T shirt"
Beebee
Posts: 1951 | Location: London, UK | Registered: 09 September 2002
quote:Originally posted by beebee: Bill Bryson recommends in one of his books (can't remember which one) [...]
"Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe", I bet. Currently, I am waiting for "A Short Story of Nearly Everything" to be published in paperback. Anxihously waiting... ^___^
Love collective nouns. Suggestions for beebee: a mass of nuns, a cloister of nuns, a blessing of nuns.
"I am a Southerner. I like the feel of these words. I could no more be otherwise than I could shed my outer skin or change the color of my eyes." Willie Morris
Posts: 1456 | Location: on the Alabama River | Registered: 22 July 2002
Topic Closed
There are many stereotypes about Italy and Rome, and to be frank, they aren't that funny.
