I’m a fanatic when it comes to stopping for pedestrians – I consider people on foot the natural state of the universe and cars must operate around them. I thought that I was backed up by Ohio law, which gives pedestrians the right of way in both marked and unmarked crosswalks.
Elsewhere, someone posted a video of a young child (3yo or so) waiting at a marked crosswalk with bright yellow signs while dozens of cars speed past. This made me mad, but worse was that other posters defended the drivers!
Ends up the law is pretty shitty:
When traffic control signals are not in place or not in operation, the driver of a vehicle shall yield the right of way, slowing down or stopping if necessary to so yield, to a pedestrian crossing the street or roadway within a crosswalk when the pedestrian is upon the half of the street or roadway upon which the vehicle is traveling, or when the pedestrian is approaching so closely from the opposite half of the street or roadway as to be in danger.
Evidently standing at the curb waiting for cars to stop is not “within the crosswalk,” so cars are not required to stop. I assume this is true even if the crosswalk has blinky lights that you can engage, since those aren’t technically “traffic control devices.”
Am I crazy or is this the worst? All it’s saying is that as a driver, I’m not allowed to hit someone in the street unless they’re jaywalking.
I have a vague recollection of an episode of Adam 12 where the boys pulled over a driver who almost ran over a pedestrian. The conversation went something like this.
McCoy: May I see your driver’s license, sir?
Driver: Of course. Did I do something wrong?
Reed: You failed to stop for a pedestrian crossing the street.
Driver: Yeah, so…
McCoy: Ah! I see from your license that you are from New York.
Driver: Yes, I am
Reed: Well, you see, sir, here in California you can’t run over pedestrians just because they are in the street; they have the right of way.
Driver: Say what? I’ve never heard of such a bizarre law.
McCoy: Yep, go figure. We’ll let you off with a warning but just don’t run down any pedestrians until you get back to New York.
Since then, I have been terrified to cross the street in another state.
Cars should stop if a pedestrian is standing on the edge of the curb clearly intending to cross. The way the law is worded is therefore not very pedestrian-friendly.
It sounds like a person needs to step off the curb (or base of the ramp if the crosswalk meets ADA standards) and into the gutter to be “within the crosswalk.” But presumably still behind the white lane line (if there is one). And maybe cars will stop then?
Of course this is not ideal, because the pedestrian is then: (1) in the roadway, where they are liable to get hit by a vehicle that doesn’t stop or swerves into the gutter; and (2) lower down so that they are not as noticeable to vehicles.
California law leaves room for interpretation, but a literal reading suggests that a pedestrian waiting on the curb is NOT in the crosswalk and does not have the right of way. Once that pedestrian steps off the curb, however, motor vehicles are required to yield the right of way to the pedestrian. California law does say, however, that pedestrians must exercise ordinary care. California Vehicle Code Section 21950 RIP: “…No pedestrian may suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety and walk or run into the path of a vehicle that is so close as to constitute an immediate hazard…”
yes, and I’m a little confused why the OP is confused by this language. If you are standing on the edge of the street, not showing any inclination that you actually are intending to step into the street, then I’m not sure why a car would need to yield to you. As soon as you take one step into the crosswalk however, you have the right of way. If you get hit, the driver is at fault. How this usually works from a practical standpoint is if you are approaching a crosswalk from a sidewalk or curb, with an apparent intent to continue into the street onto the crosswalk, an approaching driver, who might otherwise hit you if you both continued on your present trajectories, should stop. Because if they don’t, and they hit you, they are liable. But making drivers stop for a person simply standing on a curb next to a sidewalk, where their intent to cross is not apparent, would be silly.
In Oregon the pedestrian has the right-of-way once they step into the crosswalk, which can also be interpreted to standing there waiting on the curb. All intersections are crosswalks even unmarked ones. When the pedestrian steps into the road, the car driver must wait until the ped crosses the entire roadway, not just the lane in front of the car, the entire all lanes of the roadway. Most drivers think that all they have to do is wait for the person to clear the lane in front of them, that is wrong. Police do regular stings and hand out tickets like candy in a parade.
In California it’s kinda the other way around. If you are anywhere within 3 feet of the curb, just minding your own business, most cars will stop and wait for you to cross. If you never intended to cross, they’ll still wait for you to cross. Drives me crazy. I always end up hurrying across the street to not inconvenience the driver but feel a bit resentful because they “forced” me to cross when I didn’t want to yet.
The language is clear. However, I was also taught that if someone is standing waiting to cross, you should stop. AND I was taught “don’t be nice, be predictable.”
So, how can I be predictable if:
Drivers (myself and others in this thread) are taught to stop if someone is standing on the sidewalk waiting to cross,
The Ohio Driver’s manual says " You must yield the right-of-way to pedestrians entering or in a crosswalk." Note the addition of the word “entering,” which does not exist in
The law, which says only that drivers can’t mow someone down if they’ve made it into the technical roadway.
Where’s the consistency?
It seems that as written, pedestrians trying to cross a busy street with a steady flow of traffic need to risk injury in order to stop traffic. That’s not a good thing to encourage. OR it discourages being a pedestrian at all, which doesn’t seem like a good thing.
Seems to me that Ohio law is about as “pedestrian-friendly” as most other states I’ve driven or pedestrianized in.
There are people who hang around near the curb for various reasons (panhandling or navel-gazing among them), so coming to a stop to allow them to cross when they’re not intending to is not productive.
Maine has a fairly strict law about stopping your car at non-intersections when a crosswalk exists, and pretty much everyone, even New Yorkers, comes to a stop when you’ve stepped into the crosswalk. I never thought of remaining on the hellstrip and hoping that drivers would be mind-readers and stop for me.
Personally I find that standing next to the crosswalk and throwing a bunch of these into the roadway gives me a pretty decent window to cross after a few cars have passed through.
I’m sorry, but where is an adult/teen escort for this toddler? A 3yo should be nowhere near such a busy street without an escorting person old enough to handle the situation RIGHT THERE.
Someone standing in the crosswalk behind the parked car is not going to be hit - even if there is no parked car , passing traffic won’t hit someone standing a few inches off the curb. In fact, there person in the reflective clothing isn’t going to be hit by passing traffic - and most likely isn’t crossing the street, even though he’s in the crosswalk.
I assume this is true even if the crosswalk has blinky lights that you can engage, since those aren’t technically “traffic control devices.”
It seems that they are :
Ohio’s definition of traffic control device
“Traffic control device” means a flagger, sign, signal, marking, channelization device, or other device that uses colors, shapes, symbols, words, sounds, or tactile information for the primary purpose of communicating a regulatory, warning, or guidance message to road users on a street, highway, site roadway open to public travel, pedestrian facility, bikeway, or pathway.
If you are talking about these it seems Ohio law does not define them as a “traffic control signal” but “traffic control device” is broader and seems to include those orange cones and drums ( channelization devices)
I’m not sure what sort of area you live in, but I live in a city and you will often see people just hanging out on the sidewalk, near the corner who have no intention of crossing.
We have a few of those (especially in the suburbs), but we also have pedestrian-activated signals that just do a flashing light on a signpost. The latter devices don’t seem to make much difference: Some motorists stop for it, but then, about the same proportion of motorists stop for pedestrians indicating an intent to cross even without them.
