This guy gets it
Yep, that is how it is done. In a slow residential zone, nice drivers will stop for people clearly waiting to cross, but on a busy street that could cause confusion on the part of other drivers. And maybe they arent waiting to cross? We do have Walk/Dont Walk lights.
Massachusetts requires you have a tape measure (for pedestrian) or optical measuring device (if driver)
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 need be so to yield, to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within a crosswalk marked in accordance with standards established by the department of highways if the pedestrian is on that half of the traveled part of the way on which the vehicle is traveling or if the pedestrian approaches from the opposite half of the traveled part of the way to within 10 feet of that half of the traveled part of the way on which said vehicle is traveling.
If it’s a busy intersection in a city, or a busy street anywhere, there are going to be Walk/Don’t Walk signals, which the law is pretty clear about – they negate a driver’s responsibility to stop for pedestrians.
Maybe I’m the weird one, but I’ve lived in DC and other cities as well as suburbs, and I’ve never had much of a problem distinguishing between people waiting to cross the street and people just going about their business on a sidewalk. I keep an eye on people near the roadway, and if they’re at a crosswalk and it looks like they’re intending to cross, and there’s no pedestrian signals, I stop. I don’t wait until they step in the roadway, because that seems insane. And I don’t blow past because that’s not how I was taught.
Huh? If it says walk, the driver must stop.
In my city, every street corner is deemed a cross walk whether marked or not and the motorist must yield to every pedestrian in or waiting to enter the cross walk.
You’re right, I wasn’t clear. Drivers are not expected to stop when a pedestrian sign says “Walk,” they’re expected to stop for the red light that’s associated/timed with it. That’s per the code I cited above – if there’s a traffic signal present, that controls the driver’s actions, not the presence of a pedestrian.
I can too. But it appeared from
that you think cars should stop for anyone standing at the curb whether they look like they are crossing or not. You can’t enforce a law that says “you must stop if there is someone standing on the corner who looks like they intend to cross” . It has to be either “you must stop for anyone standing on the corner” or “you must stop once they have entered the crosswalk”. If you must stop if someone is standing there intending to cross, in practice it’s going to require people to stop for anyone standing there.
And I have no idea why you think that only stopping when someone has literally put a foot into the street is insane - usuing that phrasing sounds like you are talking about someone who is standing a foot or two off the curb, which is not what I’m talking about.
I’m surprised that no one has mentioned this innovative pedestrian crosswalk solution yet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ0HBd_u-Fs
Somersaults optional:
In Portland, it was almost a religion. Almost everybody stopped for pedestrians. I had to retrain myself after moving to MSP, where it seems like most drivers feel it’s entirely optional.
Your interpretation of Ohio law may well be correct, but if so it creates a ridiculous and unsafe situation. It shouldn’t be necessary to dangerously intrude into the street to “prove” that you’re intending to cross – it’s generally pretty damn obvious, and here in Ontario cars will always stop when there are one or more people at a crosswalk facing the street and obviously intending to cross.
Kids were – and perhaps still are – taught that in the absence of crosswalk blinking lights they should hold out an arm to indicate that they’re about to cross. But I rarely see this done because it’s really not necessary, especially when almost all crosswalks are now equipped with signal lights.
Speaking of those blinking lights, they would be useless if drivers were not required to stop for them. Again, in Ontario, stopping for flashing amber pedestrian crossover lights is mandatory until the entire roadway is clear, and failing to do so is a serious offense. Many of those crosswalks are near schools and parks and used daily by small children.
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After living in Japan forever, I was approaching a parking lot in the Anaheim Convention Center while attending a trade show, and a guy stepped off the curb on the other side of the road. I was already in my turn, and until he used a jetpack, there was no way that he could have made it in time.
The cop was pretty cool about it and just warned me that laws in California are different. He said that they get a lot of out-of-state or country drivers and to come to a complete stop if someone is in the crosswalk, even on the other side of the road.
In Japan or expecially Taiwan, you are likely to get rear ended if you stop in a situation like that, but I presume California drivers are more careful.
Using “careful” in the same sentence with “California drivers” is hilarious. Thanks for the laugh, since I woke up in a bit of a mood.
Like @Seanette, I was amused at characterizing California drivers as ‘careful’. Then I remembered the first time I went to Japan, and my mom wondered if the taxi drivers were all former kamikaze pilots who didn’t get a chance to take their final flights!
I am mystified by the OP’s outrage.
Until and unless somebody on a sidewalk / curb makes it blindingly obvious they intend to cross the street there is, and should be, no obligation for passing cars to come to a halt and risk creating a chain reaction rear-end collision.
The entire point of jaywalking laws is to prevent wayward scofflaw pedestrians from triggering chain reaction pile-ups midblock.
Maybe it would help if we had a visual. Does this work?
Let’s say this is not an intersection, but a crosswalk across a 4 lane road. You’re driving from left to right in this image, coming towards the camera, and you see someone standing on the reddish “truncated domes” right at the edge of the street, but not technically in the crosswalk.
Do you stop?
If you do stop, do you consider that an obligation? Or are you being “nice”?
Should the law require people to stop?
I assumed all these years that the law did require people to stop for the person standing literally inches from the roadway at a clearly marked crosswalk with blinking lights, but evidently it does not. Am I wrong to be surprised about this? Frankly I’m surprised that anyone looking at this situation thinks it requires “mind reading” or anything other than paying attention and respecting the safety of pedestrians.
eta: Also worth calling out, the entire point of jaywalking laws is not for motorist safety.
The arrival of the automobile in the opening decades of the 20th century led to increasingly deadly conflicts in the street, and the public was generally unsympathetic to motorists or to early attempts to legislate pedestrian behavior. In response, the US automobile industry and associated organizations undertook public campaigns to frame pedestrians, newly impugned as jay-walkers, as a problematic element in the new automotive age.
eta2: Also worth pointing out that many of these laws explicitly remove an obligation for drivers to yield if they can’t stop in time. Nobody should be slamming on their brakes and causing a pileup in any situation. Stopping for a red light, a stop sign, a disabled vehicle, a pedestrian… there’s nothing unusual about this.
Nope. I’m being told that I have to request access to view it.
Updated.