Why is Darwin’s pedestrian culture so off its chops?

If you’re not concentrating while driving in Darwin, you have fairly good odds of cleaning up an aimless ambler not paying attention, writes FLOSS ADAMS.

THE pedestrian culture in Darwin is off its chops.

I relocated to Darwin in mid-August last year and have been blown away by the sense of entitlement pedestrians have on the road here.

To rattle off just a couple of examples; recently I had a person step behind my car while I was in full concentration mode trying to carefully perfect a reverse park manoeuvre on Mitchell St.

This was a good one; I was driving through the city and a man stepped into my car’s path 50m ahead so I slowed right down and let the aimless ambler cross the road. No beep of the horn, no gestures … I just smiled at him.

In return he poked his tongue at me and stuck up his middle finger up.

Then I established a personal record when I counted three separate pedestrians walking in front of my car within a 10-minute period.

Yes, okay, slightly banal examples, but to reiterate, I have never experienced pedestrians anywhere, ever, as those that I have here in Darwin. I am now constantly on the lookout.

To be a bit more analytical for a second, is there a possibility this recurring issue is not the fault of pedestrians? Is it their mistake, or is it design?

Could Darwin have a greater range of better designed pathways to keep pedestrians off the road?

Stock: People

I can’t answer that because — surprise — I am a venting journo, not a traffic engineer.

When I first became conscious of this Darwin phenomenon, at first I felt anger, then there was hatred. Now I’ve moved on to hypocrisy.

Plot twist. I have fallen for the Top End culture of reckless jaywalking.

The laid-back and relaxed Territory persona has infected me quicker than a sloppy kiss at a party during an Omicron wave.

I have been here for only seven months, but by the sixth week, a harsh realisation fell over me. I too have become a chronic jaywalker.

It’s just so easy, I catch myself walking in front of (slow) moving cars at Nightcliff Woolies carpark and, in the CBD … who has time to wait for the lights to flash green with the walking person icon?

This sense of ownership on the road and I’ll say it — when pedestrians don’t pay rego — where does it come from?

To analyse it with an uneducated mind, the reasoning could partially be how few vehicles there are on the road in comparison to Australia’s other major cities.

The comparatively light traffic can give one a false sense of security that a hoon isn’t 2.5 seconds around the corner from your thongs slapping across the bitumen.

Or, is it the Territory’s red dirt, relaxation magic potion seeping in? Not sure.