Cars will rarely disobey traffic lights, at least here in the U.S. Even if there’s no cross-traffic in sight for miles, most folks will wait.
So why do pedestrians flout the law by crossing on a “DON’T WALK” sign (give or take the apostrophe), sometimes even slaloming around cars as though playing a giant game of Frogger?
Is it because the penalties are stiffer for drivers? Or maybe because it doesn’t seem as dangerous? (It seems more dangerous to me, in some ways.)
I’ve noticed when I’ve been in Europe that people do tend to obey the “Walk/Don’t Walk” signs, for what that’s worth.
Anyway, the flip side of it is that it’s also a law for cars to yield to pedestrians at cross walks (without “Walk/Don’t Walk” signs), though you rarely see that enforced. If cars don’t yield to pedestrians when they’re supposed to, what the hell, why not jaywalk all the time?
Being a New Yawker, I am very very used to the whole playing dodgeball with automobiles game.
<joke>
How do you tell if someone’s a tourist in NY?
They wait for the walk sign!
</joke>
Anyhoo, my guess is because:
You can get a ticket for running a red light. Jaywalking laws are rarely, if ever enforced.
Cars must always yield to pedestrians, regardless of what the sign says
Cars are travelling slowly in a big ciry, so people feel that there’s plenty of time to make it accross anyway. And if there isn’t, the cars are going slow enough that they won’t mind.
Ah yes, those law-flouting jaywalkers. A friend of mine once got a ticket for jaywalking somewhere in the Midwest. People in Japan tend to not jaywalk. But here in N.Y.C. jaywalking is a way of life. You don’t even think about it. “Don’t Walk” is merely a suggestion. That’s because we are in a hurry. If you are having a nice casual stroll maybe you won’t jaywalk. But getting to where you have to go in the quickest way possible is efficient and increases productivity.
Part of the reason is that walkers get the short-end of the traffic light timing at some intersections. If it’s a full-on 4-way intersection w/ left turn signals, it seems like there is no officially safe time for pedestrians. One solution is to just go to a 4-way red, let everyone walk, and then continue with the normal pattern. But this might only happen every other cycle, which could easily be 3 or 4 minutes. And you assume the damn thing doesn’t ever give you a Walk signal, since you’ve already seen a full cycle without it. So you start thinking that if you just picked a good time and hoofed it, you could easily make it across the street. Thus ignoring the Don’t Walk sign.
As the other New Yorkers here have pointed out, jaywalking is simply taken for granted here. I couldn’t begin to count the number of times cop cars have slowed down so I could cross in the middle of the street. Still, I have heard tales of other places, almost certainly mythical, where people don’t always jaywalk, as the local constabulary actually frowns upon such activity! How Saucy!
To answer the OP, it probably helps that these people aren’t crossing some four lane highway they’ve never seen. They’ve lived in their respective cities for long enough to know how fast the cars move at a certain time over a certian kind of street. It’s really quite safe if you pay attention (note: it’s really quite dangerous after your dentist pumps you full of nitrous.)
Why don’t cars do the same thing? For one thing, their vision is worse. They can’t lean over to make sure no one is coming the other way. Most directly, however, it’s because cops everywhere do frown on that sort of thing all the time, no matter how deserted the streets are. 2 words: Moving Violation. This is probably how it should be; a careless guy in a car is a much bigger threat than a careless guy in Adidas.
For what it’s worth, I got a ticket for “crossing against a red light” (I was in a crosswalk with a Don’t Walk sign) in San Luis Obispo, CA. Fifty four bucks.
Jaywalking? You know, I always wondered what the heck that was when I was growing up.
You see, as far as I know, there are NO laws against walking out in to the middle of any street in Iceland, where I come from. The cops would obviously take you in for disturbing the peace if you stopped traffic for a while, but I have never heard of anyone getting in trouble for wading out in to the middle of the street, even if they got hit.
When you take a driver’s exam in Iceland they tell you: “You are always in the wrong when you hit a pedestrian. It does not matter what he is doing or where he is doing it, the driver is ALWAYS eligable to pay compensation and loses “points” with the insurance company”
It is a commonly held belief in Iceland that it is possible to win all the claims you want by jumping in to the street, and of course many have. However, there are few benefits from winning these cases, since the plaintiff is usually blaimed for the whole thing in court and no thought is given to awarding monetary compensation for “mental anguish”, we just don’t think in dollars I guess
Since our medicare system is all on the government’s expense anyway, there are no hospital bills for the defendant to pay. So all in all it’s usually a much sweeter deal to not swerve away from the lunatic than it is to be said lunatic.
In the UK there are no jaywalking laws at all. Also zebra crossings (black and white stripes painted across the road with flashing orange beacons on each side) are generally well observed - maybe 50% of drivers will stop for you when you stand at the side and all will allow you to cross once you step onto one - if they notice you in time!
There are fewer pedestrian crossings (with a zebra or regular signals) than in most US cities I have visited though, and few drivers respect the right-of-way of pedestrians crossing a side street they wish to turn into (and most would refuse to believe pedestrians do have that right, even though it is in the Highway Code)
friedo mentioned it, but I’ve heard a more specific version:
“If you’re driving at 0300 and see a guy standing at a corner waiting for the “walk” signal, you know he’s from California.”
I saw a stand-up comic on teevee once, who was from New York. He said he came out to California and a “walk” signal came on when he wanted to cross the street. An oncoming driver actually stopped! He said “I thought the driver must have died.”
A couple of months ago I was waiting for the “walk” sign. On the diagonally opposite corner I saw a guy starting to cross the street (Venice Blvd., six lanes with an island in the centre). There was no traffic heading eastbound, so he obviously was going to go to the island and then cross the westbound lanes when traffic permitted. Unfortunately for him, there was a cop heading west. The light changed and I started to cross the street. The cop pulled over beyond the signal and waited for the guy to cross. Then (I assume) gave him a ticket. Or at least scolded him for jaywalking. (Knowing L.A. cops, I assume the former.)
In practice, pedestrian crossing is a matter of courtesy rather than legality. Technically speaking, you’re not supposed to cross the street except at a corner or a marked crosswalk. T’cha, right.
What I find really annoying is when I’m waiting to cross the street, and the well-meaning dunderhead driving the only car for miles stops to let me go. In less time than it takes the car to slow down and stop, and for me to realize that yes, really, he’s slowing down for me and not because he was distracted by a lawn ornament and he is not about to speed up and it is really safe for me to step out in front of him, he could have just driven past, and I could have crossed the street behind him.
In the US I think that DON’T WALK flashes when you must hurry & get to the other side. But they have new signs now that have a Timer to show how much time you have to get to the other side.
My interpretation of DON’T WALK when it flashes, is RUN.