I once saw a comedian from New York (or someplace) who related a story about crossing a street in L.A. The light changed and the crossing signal lit, and a car approaching the intersection stopped!. ‘I looked over. What, did he have a heart attack? The car stopped!’ IIRC, the gist was that where he was from cars (presumably making a right turn at a red light) would not yield to the pedestrians who had the right of way. This comedian or another said that in L.A. pedestrians would wait for e crossing signa!. It could be three in the morning with no cars on the street, and the L.A. walker would patiently wait for the light to change. (And yes, when I’ve been out in the wee hours I’ve seen this to be true.)
In New Orleans I found that it’s quite common to cross against the light if there is no oncoming traffic. It took me a couple of times to get used to it, but I began to ‘do as the Romans do’. Why not? It’s freakin’ hot there, and crossing against a light when it’s safe gets me to air conditioning two minutes sooner.
Seattle. The office is in Belltown in an area with a lot of street people. They cross against lights – and in the middle of the block – all the time. There are a lot of one-way streets and the lights can be a little long. There’s no reason not to cross against a light. As a driver, I have no problem with it.
But here’s something I’ve noticed a lot lately: I’ll be driving on a street, and I’ll have the green light. Pedestrians frequently cross the street in front of me despite not having the signal and despite that I’m approaching at at least the posted speed limit. What gives? ‘Screw him. He’s got brakes, and I don’t particularly care if he misses the light because I’m stealing his right of way’? Too busy thinking about the workday ahead to notice that they’re about to step in front of an onrushing vehicle? Synapses aren’t firing in synch at 0730 or eight o’clock in the morning?
Seems pretty suicidal to me. Crossing against the light is not legal in any state that I know of, and a jury is not going to convict you if you kill somebody doing that. Here in Portlandia, the pedestrian rules. If so much as a toe is off the curb, you MUST stop, regardless if it’s at an intersection or a crosswalk. People sometimes take advantage, though, and just walk out into the street yakking on a cell and without bothering to see if somebody is coming. I’ve nearly hit people because of this. It (along with other pedo pecadillos) makes driving here somewhat nerve-wracking. Your head has to constantly swivel to make sure you’re not going to take off somebody’s driver door, hit a bicyclist who is doing something stupid, or mow down someone who decides to cross ten feet from the crosswalk. It’s maddening.
This. And it’s not sometimes, it’s all the time. What I want to know is how the law applies in private parking lots. I [del]regularly[/del] always see at least one person walk out of a store and directly into the parking area and never glance to see if any vehicle is approaching them.
Perhaps this prevalent attitude contributes to the regular Portland morning news item another pedestrian was killed overnight … crossing the the street, not at an intersection, in the dark, wearing dark clothing and no overhead street lights.
Don’t get me started on the bicyclists though. They’re worse …
The dark clothing! Christ, I don’t drive at night if it’s raining as I’m deathly afraid of hitting one of these morons in a dark hoodie and dark pants. I bought velcro reflective armbands because of the poor street lighting here.
For what it’s worth, Chefguy, I only lived in Portland a year, but I refused to drive there. Even getting the busses right is sometimes tricky. It’s my least favorite place to drive.
From what I recall about Portland WALKING, however, jaywalking got you ticketed. It was the first place I’d ever seen that actually gave our jaywalking tickets, and since I didn’t drive, I walked and bussed a lot; I had to train myself NOT to jaywalk, 'cause I really didn’t want tickets for it.
I’ve lived in Portland for seven years, and my experience has been completely different. After living in the Bay Area most of my life, where pedestrians constantly waltz right out into moving traffic without a care in the world, or wait until my light turns green to cross in front of me, often making me miss the light entirely… I still get pissed off just thinking about it.
I’ve found it very nice that here in Portland that doesn’t really happen. Pedestrians wait for their light and don’t stop traffic, for the most part. It should be noted that the first four years I was here, I worked a menial restaurant delivery job that involved driving all over the metro area on a daily basis, including spending quite a bit of time downtown. I still drive downtown several times a week, and I don’t see the behavior described in this thread. It could be that I just don’t notice it, though, after the lifetime of Hell that was driving in the Bay Area.
This is funny, because, as an East-coaster, when I visited Seattle, people warned me that Seattle police actually give jaywalking tickets! And, while I didn’t get a ticket, I did notice crowds of people standing on the sidewalk, waiting for the light to change, in order to cross a one-way street with clear visibility for several blocks and no oncoming cars in sight.
So if you think Seattlites are notorious jaywalkers, I have to ask:
Where did you grow up Johnny LA? The most law-abiding parts of Germany? Some secret sect of ultra-orthodox lawful-neutral worshippers? Have you never visited, or even seen a movie set in, New York City, or downtown Boston, Philadelphia or even Chicago?
I recall my astonishment the first a driver stopped for me. It was in Eugene, OR, traffic was light and I was waiting in the middle of a block for a line of cars to pass so I could cross. SOP anywhere in the east. In Montreal, zebra stripes are just places that emphasize the target, er pedestrian. As the last car in the line approached, I did what I usually do, step off the curb as the car was approaching. Screech, he jammed on the breaks. Since then I’ve learned not to that on the west coast, whether in Seattle or Vancouver, both of which I visit regularly.
This is true. I remember being told this when I moved up here in the 90’s.
One tale I was told was of a group that was ticketed for jaywalking en mass. It turned out to be the editorial staff for a major newspaper, heading out for a group lunch. Needless to say, the editorial pages were lots of fun to read for a while.
