this situation is particularly bad in spain!

Problem is that people get so fed up of waiting on the crossing and generally getting ignored that they get a bit arsey and actually start walking out into the road when it really isn't safe for them to do so, which means that the driver has to brake hard, thus risking having someone else bash into the back of them ( because noone respects the distance between cars here!) and it gets annoying because they seem to think they can just start crossing as and when they want to, which I don't think is the case....

Ok, so it's been a while since I've looked at the highway code, although I seem to remember it saying something about the car having to stop at a zebra crossing only when it is safe to do so, meaning, if suddenly you're almost on top of the crossing, and someone materialises out of nowhere and starts crossing then that according to the highway code would be wrong.....( I assume..)

That's a cyclist for you, one of the worst types of people.

Zebra crossings seem to be a popular place to park in Spain. And roundabouts.

Yes! most definitely. I've actually seen once (ok, it doesn't happen that often..) but someone missed their exit off the roundabout and decided to start reversing in order to turn into it.....yes, reversing into oncoming traffic when he could have easily gone round the roundabout once more and then turned off into his exit.....

parking on zebra crossings are now not as common.....I think the police are cracking down on that more now. Although having said that, there will always exist an element in spanish culture where everywhere is a potential parking place!

I really hate cyclists! Not the ones that go solo but the large groups of cyclists. For some strange reason, in the part of spain I live, seeing large groups of cyclists hogging the road also with a car behind them carrying all their equipment etc is a very common sight on an almost daily basis. And being so many of them, they hog the entire road, so difficult to overtake etc, but my one real annoyance with these people is that on a road with two lanes, and where there is a zebra crossing, the car will be stopping or have stopped, someone is walking across the road, and the cyclists do not stop! This happens so much that it may well be a rule here that state cyclists don't have to stop when in races etc, because for the life of me I just understand that!

I do that, I push the button and there's no cars there so I walk across feeling pleased with myself that someone hopefully in a hurry will go tearing up to the lights and they change so they have to stop and sit there like a lemon until they go back to green even though there's nobody crossing mwah ha ha

A common mistake made by us British tourists is that the rules of zebra/pedestrian crossings in the rest of Europe and indeed the world are the same as ours. In fact, ours are very unusual - in most other countries, cars only have to stop when somebody is in the process of actually using the crossing. They do not have to stop when they see somebody waiting to cross, as we do in the UK.

Not so


So the same as elsewhere.

Er, no it isn't. The law in Spain, for example, is that motorists are required by law to stop for a pedestrian waiting at a pedestrian crossing only if he indicates his intention to cross by giving a clear hand-signal or placing one foot on the crossing. The hand-signal part of that rule is often ignored as well. As you have quoted yourself, this is clearly different in the UK, as Rule 195 states that motorists should be prepared to slow down or stop if they see someone waiting to cross. In the UK, all you have to do is stand at the side of a zebra crossing and cars should stop to let you past. This is not the case in most other countries.

Reread the rule. In the UK the car only has to stop once the pedestrian is on the crossing.