7.1 Pedestrian Crossings (Regulation 189)

Pedestrian crossings under Regulation 189

The Guyana Police Force (GPF) Learner/Driver Theoretical Programme prints CROSSINGS as Regulation 189(1) to (7) of the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Regulations, Cap. 51:02. The April 2025 Guyana Road Traffic Code teaches the same place from the pedestrian’s kerb and from the driver’s seat. This OpenExamPrep chapter is independent study of those published rules. It is not a Traffic Headquarters booklet, not a claim of official approval or partnership, and not a substitute for the three-book package issued with a learner registration.

Quick Answer: Unless you can see that no foot passenger is on the crossing, approach at a speed that lets you stop before you reach it. Where no Police Constable is controlling traffic, a pedestrian on the road at that crossing has precedence over all vehicles. Where a constable is controlling an intersection, let every pedestrian who started across before you get the proceed signal finish. Do not stop on the crossing except for circumstances beyond your control or to avoid an accident. Pedestrians must not linger.

How the Code tells you it is a crossing

Code rule 9 says PEDESTRIAN CROSSINGS are indicated by broad black and white markings on the roadway and Pedestrian Crossing signs at each side. Regulation 178(1)(e) allows surface lines to mark crossing places for pedestrians. Those marks are not decoration for a photograph on Regent Street. They are the place Regulation 189 talks about when it says crossing.

If a refuge or island sits in the middle, the pedestrian pages tell the person on foot to STOP on it and look again before finishing. For the driver, that island is still part of the crossing environment: a person may be waiting on it, stepping off it, or hidden behind it. Rule 8 tells pedestrians to use a crossing or refuge when one is nearby. You should expect them to do that in Georgetown, along the East Bank, on the East Coast, and at school gates.

Do not overtake at or near a pedestrian crossing (rule 34). The list that also names corners, junctions, bridges, and the top of a hill is there because the person you cannot yet see is often on that marking. Overtaking through a crossing is how you meet a pedestrian at the speed you were using to pass a minibus.

Regulation 189(1) — arrive already able to stop

189(1) is a speed rule, not a courtesy slogan. Every person driving or propelling a vehicle, when approaching a crossing, shall — unless he can see that there is no foot passenger thereon — proceed at such a speed as to be able, if necessary, to stop before reaching that crossing.

The exception is visual, not hopeful. “I usually do not see anyone here at 06:30” is not “I can see that there is no foot passenger thereon.” A parked hire car, a mango tree, rain on the East Coast, or a minibus at a bus stop can hide a person who is already on the black and white. If you cannot see the whole marking clear, you must already be at a speed that lets you halt short of it.

Rule 10 reminds pedestrians that moving vehicles need time to slow, particularly when the road is wet or otherwise slippery. The driver’s half of that sentence is 189(1) plus the Code’s general pull-up rule: never drive at a speed from which you cannot stop within the distance you can see to be clear, and go much more slowly if the road is wet. A crossing on a wet Demerara evening is not the place to keep an open-road pace because the light is green two streets away.

Regulation 189(2) — uncontrolled crossing, pedestrian precedence

189(2) applies at or approaching a crossing where traffic is not for the time being controlled by a Police Constable. You must allow free and uninterrupted passage to any passenger who is on the road at such crossing. Every such foot passenger shall have precedence over all vehicular traffic at that crossing.

The Code says the same thing in driver English. Rule 20(ii) (the give-way line on the Safety of Pedestrians page): give way to pedestrians on Pedestrian Crossings; THEY HAVE THE RIGHT OF WAY; signal to other drivers your intention to slow down or stop. Rule 78 closes the motor-vehicle cluster with You must give precedence on “Pedestrian Crossings.” Precedence is not “wave them across if you feel kind.” It is a legal order of movement: the person already on that marking goes; the vehicle waits.

Who counts? All vehicular traffic yields — motor car, hire car, minibus, motorcycle, pedal cycle, animal-drawn vehicle. A larger vehicle does not buy the crossing. Sounding the horn does not create right of way (rule 76). A person who has stepped onto the crossing is the 189(2) passenger. The pedestrian pages also tell that person, when no rank is in charge, to step off the kerb onto the crossing to show the wish to use it, but to wait for a suitable gap so drivers have time to give way and stop. Your job is to be already slow enough (189(1)) that the gap they need is real.

Regulation 189(3) — the pedestrian who started before your proceed signal

189(3) is the police-controlled case. At a crossing at an intersection where traffic is for the time being controlled by a Police Constable, you must still allow free and uninterrupted passage to every foot passenger who has started to go over the crossing before the driver receives a signal that he may proceed over the crossing.

A proceed signal to you is not a wipe of the crossing. The person who left the kerb while you were held still owns the rest of that walk. You do not “take your green” or your wave-through by crowding them. Rule 49 adds the turning case at any junction: when turning, give way to pedestrians who are crossing. An empty major road does not erase a person on the marking.

If you receive a proceed signal while a pedestrian is still on the far half of a wide Georgetown junction, you wait. If a constable then holds you again, you stay held. Lights and ranks are Chapter 9 and section 7.3; the crossing rule here is simple: started before your proceed means they finish.

Do not stop on it — and do not linger on it

189(4) forbids causing the vehicle or any part of it to stop upon any crossing unless:

1. you are prevented from proceeding by circumstances beyond your control; or
2. it is necessary to stop in order to avoid an accident.

A fare who wants the shop beside the stripes is not “beyond your control.” A chat at the zebra while you wait for a passenger is not “avoiding an accident.” Stopping on the marking because the next light is red is still stopping on the crossing if your wheels are on it. The lawful halt is short of the crossing, or beyond it after you have cleared it — not on the black and white, except those two excuses.

189(5) is the pedestrian twin: no foot passenger shall remain upon any crossing longer than is necessary to pass from one side of the road to the other with reasonable dispatch. Code rule 18 repeats that sentence. Code rule 11 says NEVER loiter in the roadway. Cap. 51:02 section 62 makes it an offence to wilfully loiter or remain on a roadway so as to be likely to cause danger or obstruction; the Home Affairs text of the Act sets a summary fine of not less than GY$7,500 and not more than GY$15,000. Lingering on the stripes is not a rest stop.

Use the handbrake for a temporary halt at a crossing the same way the Theoretical Programme tells you to use it at lights: hold the vehicle stationary independently of the foot control. That keeps you from creeping onto the marking while you wait.

Walking along, then crossing — left-hand traffic

Guyana is left-hand traffic (Code rule 22). The pedestrian kerb drill matches the driver’s junction look: STOP at KERB, LOOK Right, LOOK Left and Right Again. Do not cross until the road is clear; cross at right angles; keep looking. On a one-way road, stop and look toward the oncoming stream. Do not allow small children to cross or use the roads alone.

Code walking rules you should still know as a driver, because they tell you where people will be:

• Where there is a footpath or sidewalk, use it.
• On the sidewalk, do not walk close to the kerb (wing mirrors and passing vehicles).
• Where there is no footpath, walk on the right-hand side of the road to face oncoming traffic.
• A marching body (youth organisation, school class, troops) that cannot use a footpath keeps to the left, with a lookout front and rear; at night the lookouts carry lights, white at the front of the column and red at the rear.

Rule 20 tells drivers to watch for the pedestrian who comes out suddenly from behind stationary vehicles and other obstructions, especially near schools, bus stops, and pedestrian crossings, and to watch for children who run and people who step off a footpath. Rule 90(c) forbids leaving a vehicle so as to create a hazard near bus stops or school entrances, or so as to obscure traffic signs, traffic lights, or pedestrian crossings.

Crossing duties in one table

Typical Guyana mistakes

The empty-looking roll is the 189(1) error: the driver treats a painted crossing like open asphalt because nobody is obvious from the off-side seat of a right-hand-drive car. The horn-precedence error is the 189(2) error: the driver believes a hoot transfers the right of way. The proceed-signal barge is the 189(3) error: the driver treats a constable’s wave as a wipe of people already on the road. The shop-stop is the 189(4) error: the vehicle sits on the marking. The linger is the 189(5) error, and it is also how section 62 trouble starts.

Memorise the regulation’s own verbs for the electronic sitting: stop before reaching; free and uninterrupted passage; precedence; started before the proceed signal; beyond his control or avoid an accident; reasonable dispatch. This chapter teaches those published topics. It does not replace the Road Traffic Code or the Theoretical Programme PDF.