I’ve never ever seen a crosswalk like that. All of our crosswalks are at lights, and have the little red hand/white walking guy sign for Walk/Don’t walk. If you jaywalk, you, the PEDESTRIAN is the one who is risking a ticket (I love to jaywalk, I sing “breakin’ the law, breakin the LAAAAWWW” to myself in my head when I do it :D)
Where do they put these crosswalks, just any old where crossing the roadway? How odd, we, the pedestrian, have to cross at intersections only, or, as I said, risk a ticket.
I think we’re using the same word for two different things here, CanvasShoes. A legal “crosswalk” where all the rules and fines apply is any intersection without a light. In my sleepy suburb neighbourhood, every intersection can be considered to have crosswalks. Not all crosswalks have lines painted on them or pedestrian lights, but they are still crosswalks. I’ve also heard crosswalks defined as “anywhere that a sidewalk would continue across a road.”
As for your love of jaywalking, let me give you a little perspective from the driver’s side. I almost killed a highway worker early on in my driving career (he ran out across the highway without looking after his hardhat that had blown off), and I really, really, really never want to hurt anybody with my car. As a pedestrian, you don’t want to get hurt, either (I’m assuming). If you cross where I expect you to cross, and I stop for anyone who wants to get across, maybe we can all get through this without hurting each other.
I don’t know quite how crosswalks work in America, but I’m thinking of zebra crossings here in the uk. They’re black-and-white stripes across the road, and constantly flashing orange beacons at the side. The idea is that a pedestrian stands at the edge, the cars stop, and he crosses.
What’s annoying is if there’s only one car coming. It’s no slower for the pedestrian if the car goes past, but they’re supposed to stop, making me feel frustrated if I’m the driver and apologetic if I’m the pedestrian.
If I get to one of those crossings and there is only one car coming, I don’t hit the button until the car has gone past. Most of those flashing light crossings I find are at places where a LOT of cars drive past (example the crossing at the bus stop on Bow Trail just before Sarcee) if I waited for all the cars to go past it would be the middle of the night.
I think the ones that give the most trouble are the unlit crossings where a side street opens onto a bigger road (basically a T where the top of the t is the main road and the straight line is the side street). That’s the sort of place I try to avoid, even with this law, because I have nearly been hit a few times. And I do watch carefully, I don’t just dive into traffic and expect people to stop, especially when I have my son with me.
It annoys me as much as drivers to see people doing that, because it gives us decent pedestrians a bad rep, and I am always worried that someone won’t stop and someone will be killed before my eyes.