Vulnerable road users and pedestrian safety
Vulnerable road users and pedestrian safety
This domain tests how you protect the people most likely to be hurt: pedestrians, children, older people, cyclists, motorcyclists, and anyone whose mistake you must be able to absorb.
Pedestrians
Give way to anyone on a zebra crossing or clearly waiting to step onto one. Approach crossings and junctions at a speed that lets you stop. Never overtake a vehicle that has stopped at a crossing - it is almost certainly stopping for a pedestrian you cannot see. Watch for people stepping out between parked cars, and remember that a pedestrian looking at a phone or looking away has not seen you.
Children and schools
Children act on impulse and are hidden by parked cars. Slow down early near schools, playgrounds and ice-cream vans, and check under and around the car before reversing. A stopped school bus with children around it is a hazard zone, not an obstacle to squeeze past.
Two-wheelers and motorcycles
Pass cyclists with at least a metre of clearance, more at higher speeds, and do not overtake one just before a junction or a bend. Look twice at junctions - a motorcycle's narrow profile disappears behind a windscreen pillar. Before opening your door, check the mirror and reach across with the far hand so your body turns and you see a cyclist coming.
Worked example
A car ahead brakes and stops at a marked crossing on a two-lane road and you cannot see why. Overtaking would put you in the path of the pedestrian that driver has stopped for, so you stop too and wait: the reason for their stop is your reason.
Traps
Assuming eye contact means the pedestrian will wait. Passing a stationary bus closely. Reversing a car with a high rear window using the mirrors alone.