[General] when walking along a road

[Silverobama]

Hi.

I saw the following sentence in a school bulletin board today. It was written in English. "You should watch the oncoming traffic when you are walking along a road".

I think the sentence is not natural when saying to the students. May I have your opinion? My version is "You should watch the traffic when walking along the road".

Students need to be aware of not simply one road but every road.

 

[jutfrank]

It is natural. The writer probably had a good reason to mention oncoming traffic. Can you imagine what that might have been?

I'm not sure why you changed the article, or what you mean by being aware of 'every road'. The writer doesn't mean just one road. Don't you think using a is a much better way of meaning 'every'?

 

[Yankee]

Hi.

I saw the following sentence in a school bulletin board today. It was written in English. "You should watch the oncoming traffic when you are walking along a road".

I think the sentence is not natural when saying to the students. May I have your opinion? My version is "You should watch the traffic when walking along the road".

Students need to be aware of not simply one road but every road.

Yes, it would be common/natural. The unwritten safety rule is that when walking on a road with no sidewalk, you should walk on the side facing traffic (left side in the U.S.).

 

[Silverobama]

It is natural. The writer probably had a good reason to mention oncoming traffic. Can you imagine what that might have been?

I'm not sure why you changed the article, or what you mean by being aware of 'every road'. The writer doesn't mean just one road. Don't you think using a is a much better way of meaning 'every'?

After your explanation, jutfrank, I think the original sentence is good. I think by mentioning "oncoming traffic", the school wants to emphasize that the traffic is busy and there are many cars coming and going on the road, students should be careful.

 

[tedmc]

Why restrict yourself to "oncoming traffic" and not traffic coming from behind? It is not practical to walk against the traffic direction.

Why not "walking along the road" instead of "walking along a road"?

 

[Tarheel]

When walking along a road with no sidewalk it is recommended to walk in the direction of oncoming traffic so you can see the oncoming cars.

 

[jutfrank]

Why restrict yourself to "oncoming traffic" and not traffic coming from behind?

One obvious answer is that the speaker is alluding to the fact that there is no sidewalk on the left hand side of the road. However, I doubt that's the case here since the use of the indefinite a road instead of the road suggests that there is no particular road in mind. I assume most roads in China have sidewalks.

Another answer is simply that, for whatever reason, the speaker generally regards oncoming traffic, not traffic coming from behind, as a real danger to children.

Since this sentence is likely to have been written by a non-native speaker, it is possible that the word oncoming was just an inaccurate attempt to refer to traffic in general, coming from both directions.

 

[Tarheel]

Of course, before crossing a street always look both ways.

 

[jutfrank]

I tell my kids to look straight ahead and run as fast as they can.

 

[Tarheel]

Silver, I think jutfrank is kidding. (I hope so.)