Last week, I read an article about pedestrians in Austin struck and killed while crossing streets, found here. A number of these deaths were due to people cross streets in the middle, away from the crosswalks. An elderly woman interviewed stated that she felt safer crossing in the middle of the streets because drivers have no respect for pedestrians. Can anyone shed some light on this mentality? I personally cross at crosswalks if they’re available and corners if they’re not, because I know that I resent jaywalkers who pop out of nowhere when I’m driving and who force me to stop or wait longer at lights to accommodate them.
Do you feel safer when you cross streets at crosswalks or in the middle? Why do you prefer one or the other?
I didn’t read the article b/c your link doesn’t work (for me at least), but the old lady you mentioned is guilty of using questionable logic. Or perhaps pragmatist logic–“might as well cross where you want to cross because you’ll get run over anyway even if you use the designated crosswalks.”
I am rarely a pedestrian in a busy urban area where it would matter, but the only time I’ve crossed streets without the benefit of crosswalks is late at night with no traffic.
And regardles of where I’m at, the idea of looking both ways–several times!–applies.
I’ve also braked, very freakin’ hard, for pedestrians who jaywalk out of nowhere. They have the “right of way” even if they’re wrong.
But there are a lot of dead pedestrians who were “right.” I don’t understand people who will walk across a busy street without paying attention.
Well, one advantage to crossing in the middle of the street is that one doesn’t have to keep an eye out for persons who are planning to turn onto the street you’re crossing. My grandmother got run over in a cross-walk with the signal, (this was many years ago) by a woman trying to turn onto the street my grandmother was crossing.
Whether that advantage outweighs the visibility factor supporting the crosswalk I couldn’t begin to guess.
I always take the crosswalk if there’s one reasonably close, unless traffic is light. You can expect drivers to slow down and stop for you at an intersection, but they sure as hell won’t be looking out for pedestrians elsewhere, so it basically turns into real-life Frogger.
That said, some crosswalks ar in horrible positions and might as well not exist. I always had a beef with one on Star’s Road Halifax that is at a three-way–unfortunately, the intersecting street is a one-way away from Star’s Road, and there are no lights to tell cars to stop for pedestrians. Cars almost never stop for you unless you’re already in the middle of the street there.
From the driver’s point of view, a pedestrian crossing at a non-crosswalk is an extra hazard, and I think it’s discourteous and less safe for a pedestrian to subject a driver to one more safety risk. Crosswalks were designed to make crossings as safe as possible. In my state, at least, a car is legally required to stop for a pedestrian in a crosswalk, and a driver should expect to see a pedestrian there and prepare for it; he is not expected to be as aware of a crossing elsewhere.
Of course, where there is light and slow traffic, pedestrian crossing in mid-block isn’t as much of a hazard, but it might still be illegal.
If I were the pedestrian and was struck by a car, I think I would have a much better legal case against the driver if I was in a crosswalk at the time rather than stepping out in front of a car that wasn’t expecting to see me mid-block.