Really, drivers, it really is not that hard. In a residential/commercial neighborhood if you have a green light, there is a pretty good (read 100%) chance that I have a walk signal.
So why, oh why is it that every time that I go to cross) on a cross walk, mind you, I am one of those very contentious pedestrians) that some dumb fuck almost runs me over? Roaring up to the light, turning right in front of me, honking at me as I (quickly) exercise my right-of-way.
Honestly!
You should be glad your state has pedestrian right of way laws (or do they?).
Go to vegas or new york and try crosing a street.
You think you got it bad? Here in Tokyo not only are the drivers all a bunch of fucking bullies, but the pedestrains let them get away with it! At every crosswalk with a “Pedestrians Have Right of Way” sign on it, you will see crowds of pedestrains, patiently watching car after car after car go by until it is safe for them to cross. It is my dream to catch one of these fuckers one say, pull his head through the car window and say “Can’t you read Japanese?”
Most drivers are pretty good about right of way (as in, the pedestrians always have) here. For those that aren’t though I’ve always wanted to carry around a battle axe to smash into their hoods.
Check this out…
The “Mean Streets 2000” study by the Surface Transportation Policy Project reports that Vegas is the nation’s 16th most dangerous city for pedestrians. In 1997 and 1998, there were 86 pedestrian deaths, according to the Washington, D.C.-based environmental group. As of Friday, there were 33 pedestrian fatalities in the city.
Also see this link… it’s from 1997-1998… but i think it stil applies
http://www.transact.org/states/statefacts.asp?s=newyork
Ooohohhhhhhhhh. Pedestrians quiet, cars evil. My favourite is when they stop right in the middle of the crosswalk. A little late, are we, Jebus? I just want to walk over their hood.
I almost was hit by a fucking SCHOOL BUS in the crosswalk at campus once. Fuckers.
Or the cars who would let you go, but you couldn’t because the ones on the other lane wouldn’t.
Or you’d be halfway through-and people wouldn’t even fucking slowdown!
That’s why there was serious talk about building a bridge at La Roche-because one of these days, someone IS going to get hit.
I had the opposite problem in downtown San Antonio. I was trying to make a right and the pedestrians continued walking across the street paying no heed to the don’t walk sign. I waited through 3 light changes before I slowly inched my way through them.
Yes, to the OP, it is fucking annoying when vehicles don’t recognize the right of way of pedestrians. If only people weren’t so impatient.
Marc
When I went to NYC in August, I thought it was harder for cars to get around in those crowded streets…
When the cops are bored they tag cars that blitz a crosswalk (there was a huge media thing about it in St Paul, MN this past autumn).
For a few days drivers were extra cautious. “For a few days” being the key phrase.
I remember when I was in Trondheim, Norway. When you put a foot on the crosswalk, all traffic stopped in the immediate area. I was amazed.
Of course, this led to the Damn American people playing the Hokey Pokey with the crosswalks “You put your right foot on, you take your right foot out…”
Oh man, Binarydrone! Your location says Seattle, but are you sure you’re not in the Twin Cities? In October alone, I experienced four separate occasions where, had I not looked first, I would have been mown down by some jackass flying around the corner - waaaaay over the speedlimit for city driving. In all four cases, the light had just turned green, giving me the “Walk” sign. One guy and his girlfriend actually made eye contact with me and laughed as they scrambled to get around the corner in front of me.
And to echo MGibson, as a driver I’ve had to deal with jackass peds who cross when and where they’re not supposed to - which is why I avoid doing it myself.
There’s a designated crosswalk with diagonal lines on the street between two major buildings where I work. There are no traffic signals or stop signs there (it’s in the middle of the block), but a peek at the Illinois “Rules of the Road” guidebook online showed that pedestrians in the crosswalk have right-of-way over vehicles. I still don’t dare push that issue there - cars just fly down the block without any thought of the crosswalk there, and seem surprised when someone needs to cross.
Where I used to work, there was a similar situation but finally stop signs were put up to simply make all the cars stop regardless of whether there was a pedestrian or not. Some mail truck almost ran me over anyway when the driver didn’t stop at the sign.
In midtown and lower Manhattan, that is true. In certain areas of Queens, that is true. However, there are lots of places that are ‘pedestrian beware’.
Pedestrians rule here in Manhattan. You go past the stop sign and stick your car’s nose into the pedestrian crossing before coming to a stop in NY and the pedestrians will kick your car, climb over it (stomping), whop it with their umbrellas and canes, come up to your window and yank your head through to give you talking to, call a cop over to get you ticketed, etc.
Meanwhile, they’ll cross in front of you without looking when you’ve got the green if you hesitate at all. They aren’t worried that you’ll plow into them–they figure the other 18 pedestrians will absorb most of the impact and they can use the insurance money that Jacoby & Myers gets them.
I’m a NY pedestrian myself, but I don’t quite have the NY’er faith in automobile pilots’ level of alertness and the ability of their cars to stop on a dime, nor is my right to cross the street something I’m ready to defend by putting my skin and bones on the line. The other pedestrians elbow me out of the way and head right on out there, though, who cares if the moving van is coming through the intersection at 25 mph, we got the WALK light and the idiot in the van can just jam on the damn brakes, it ain’t our fault he got trapped in the intersection…
I feel your pain. I’ve lived in cities where drivers are stupid or inattentive, but here in Baltimore they are also homicidal. “WALK” signals mean nothing to them, and i have almost been bowled over on numerous occasions.
And what’s the deal with pedestrian crosswalks? I can only think that Baltimoreans must see them as some sort of abstract art, because they certainly have no effect on the speed of vehicles or the ability of a pedestrian to cross the street.
I find walking in New York much easier, and the drivers more considerate.
You know what would be cool? In addition to the walk signal, if some of those severe tire damage spikes that you see in some parking lots to keep folks from going the wrong way were to deploy. Run the light=boom 4 flats.
Here in Reno we have those pedestrian crosswalks, like two in every block, in the middle of the road with no discernable rhyme or reason to them. Not only are they scary for the pedestrians (which I am about 50% of the time) because hardly any drivers stop, but they are equally terrifying for the drivers (which I am the other 50% of the time, duh), because suddenly out of nowhere on a street where the speed limit is forty-five there will be a mother and five little children crossing RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU!
I hate these things. Why can’t there just be crosswalks at intersections? We could all use the extra walking to get to them anyway. 
Move to Boston. Here it seems like motorists are second-rate citizens. I’ve actually been standing on a curb nowhere near a crosswalk, not seriously expecting to be able to cross, when suddenly a car stops suddenly and honks at me to cross! I didn’t think I had the right of way when I wasn’t anywhere near a crosswalk. This happens repeatedly.
See, I have lived in Boston in the past and this is actually because the Boston drivers are freaks. You never know when one of them is going to pull some crap like this in some strange misguided effort to be polite. Give me New York City any day, at least there you know that the driver will be a jerk and can predict the outcome of any situation.
My hometown has a different setup at most (if not all - I never paid THAT much attention) busy pedestrian intersections: four-way red lights. And, since up until now, right-turn-on-red wasn’t allowed, the four-way red for cars meant that ALL CARS in ALL DIRECTIONS had to come to a full stop for the 30 seconds or minute or whatever that was alloted to pedestrian crossing. Not only is this safer, IMHO and IME, but it also allows pedestrians to cross the street diagonally instead of taking two full cycles to get to where they actually want to be. It works great!
Then I moved here, and for the first time experienced the “pedestrians have walk signal when I have green light” situation. I was NOT expeciting it, and I have to admit that I’ve had to slam on my brakes once or twice when someone started crossing the street. It’s hard to get out of the habit of how it was where I learned to drive. I am more aware of it now, and try to be consciencious (sp?) about it, but sometimes I forget and slip back into my old driving habits from Quebec. I also admit that I still occasionally sit at a red light and wait to turn right…