The canton of Luzern has just put new rules into place that effect all drivers. In any zone limited to 30 km/h, there will now be no more zebra crossing (except in the proximity of schools and care homes) but pedestrians can cross the street anywhere within that zone; they do not, however, have priority.
Only children have priority but they should first make eye contact with the driver before attempting to cross the street. The argument given by the department of traffic and infrastructures is that pedestrian crossings give children a false sense of security and many cross without looking. The Swiss teach their children the slogan “Warte, Luege, Löse, Laufe”: wait, look, listen and then cross, and the hope is that now the children will be disciplined to use it everytime. They advise parents to walk to school with their kids to help them identify the best place for their kids to now cross the road.
If you have driven behind the Allmend recently you can see a perfect example of how the town wants the 30 zones to look like. There are boulders at the beginning and end of the zone to force you to slow down, but these aren’t in place everywhere.
So if you are driving in a 30 km/h zone do not be surprise if someone decides to step out in front of you even if there is no zebra crossing there, and if you haven’t already teach your children the wait, look, listen before crossing limerick before things just got a little more complicated for them.
