So TP Is Deploying New Cameras At Traffic Junctions. But How About Zebra Crossings?

Recently, I found out that the Singapore Traffic Police (TP) are replacing all wet-film-based cameras in the island.

According to Channel NewsAsia, the new equipments offer "better resolution and clarity, and ...transmit image data directly from the site...". This means that any motorists who beats the red light stands a higher chance of being caught in the act, as emphasised by the dropping numbers of fatalities since 2011.

It is a good step forward; inerrant drivers have been a major concern of late, with the infamous Rochor Road accident in 2012 being possibly the worst in the last few years.

However, there seems to be a overlooked portion in the exercise to restrain recklessness on the road, and that is, the zebra-striped pedestrian crossing.

These sections might, in the past, have served well to signal motorists to slow down and stop when pedestrians bear the 'right of way' over the marked section. These days, the markings served as a kind of boundary you will find at bowling alley lanes; the type that rests right before a stack of  10 pins, and, metaphorically, whatever car that comes along is the rolling ball at high speed.

You know what the pins represent.

Since I started running years back, such a situation is becoming a more common experience. To be fair to rest of the motorists, many have the decent courtesy to decelerate and halt when I crossed over. My main beef is against those with an unintentional agenda to kill someone, thereby a very good time for these douches to stop mistaking a zebra crossing as a F1 finish line.

I'm not sure if some of these drivers had learned their lessons after a close brush with causing death. Every time, one screeched to a halt, their expression are an irritated look, an angry heave of the arm or, in my most recent encounter, a face that turns away as if fearing responsibility.

In most cases, my answer is The Bird, not a temper-losing gesture I'm proud of.

No doubt, it has arrived at the stage that, in an unspoken and de facto rule, drivers actually has the right of way when it comes to the zebra crossing. As pedestrians, we should mature to this reversal of roles. Our survival is no longer dependent, not even partially, on traffic light signals but that we are our own preserver of our lives and safety.

I have occasionally told people that with enough time spend in Hanoi, Vietnam, one could survive crossing the raging river of the city's motor traffic, maybe just suffering a harmless bump from a bike during the first two days.

Vietnamese drivers / riders are actually a misunderstood bunch; for what is perceived as undisciplined and chaotic manners of commandeering a vehicle, these people actually possessed a higher sense of situational awareness on the road. The advise, that you should walk through a Vietnamese traffic rush with great confidence, is perhaps a nod to the wordless but effective motion-based communication between pedestrians and motorists even if they virtually ignore official regulations.

Back in Singapore, you stand a higher chance of fatality at a quiet zebra crossing.  

You stand a higher chance of getting killed at a zebra crossing in Singapore than in the chaotic rush of this Vietnamese motor traffic.