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Reader question: Please explain “the coast is clear” in this sentence: Pedestrians at the junction are caught in the chaos at the junction and have to wait patiently till the coast is clear. What coast? My comments: In other words, pedestrians must wait till the cars are gone before safely crossing the street. Waiting patiently till the coast is clear? That sounds like a good advice for Chinese pedestrians, who are often seen competing hurriedly with all sorts of vehicles at crossroads. Chinese pedestrians, we have to admit, are kind of hard done by these days. With more and more vehicles crowding the streets and even sidewalks, their walking routes are limited. They often have to compete at crossroads because, for one thing, the coast is never clear here. If they wait, they have to wait, like, for ever. Still and all, it’s a good advice for pedestrians to watch the traffic lights and any unruly vehicles coming their way. Anyways, for pedestrians to wait till the coast is clear is to wait till all the cars are out of sight, so that they can walk leisurely and safely to the other side of the street. Literally, “the coast is clear” means just that - there’s nobody in sight and so you can do whatever you want to do. Again, we cannot expect to take this phrase literally during rush hour traffic in Beijing but that’s the idea. | 
