I understand that there is this quaint driver courteous thing that goes on in this city NOW. It wasn’t always like this: you are crossing the street and a driver jammmms on the brakes to let you cross and then waves you across the street making eye contact with me and not his rearview mirror. IF he looked in the rearview or ahead he would see other drivers who didn’t choose to help me cross the street.
Usually there is a line up of cars burning gas and time while I have to parade across the street. I have to wait of course until the other lane stops to let me go too. Damn it! I know how to cross the street. You are polluting the air even more with this unnecessary courtesy. It is dangerous really. It is worse when you are feeling like crossing the street and there isn’t any traffic really and someone stops and there is just you and this driver watching you cross the street…LIke go already I will cross when you are gone!!!!
INsane! It is really creepy actually.
Drivers should stop if it is raining and someone doesn’t have rain gear or it is a really busy street or if someone is at one of the cross walks with a button on it to make a light flash to let you know to stop….duh?!
I am walking. I am not in a rush or I would be running. Again, I understand the underlying kindness and courteous but really LOOK at this situation. Also, Pedestrians HAVE to stoppppp thinking cars are obligated to stop for them….you can walk behind a car trying to get out of a busy intersection instead of sneering and with your eyes telling someone to put their car in reverse so you can cross…holy god I thought you were walking to save gas and beeee ECO friendly…guess not.
I walk a lot and this happens a lot with allllll kinds of drivers. I think drivers should stick to helping each other out and worry less about pedestrians who already KNOW how to look both ways before they cross the street.
—Parading around town.
This article appears in Jul 2-8, 2009.
I couldn’t agree more. Stop with the holding up traffic and being POLITE, don’t stop unless its a crosswalk.
As a pedestrian, I do NOT want cars to stop for me unless I am at a crosswalk with a WALK signal. If I look like I want to cross and I’m NOT on a crosswalk, DO NOT STOP, because chances are you are forcing others to stop.
“It’s called common courtesy” is what one female driver told me when I asked her politely why she stopped between traffic lights to let two teenaged girls cross the street (I was held up along with 4 others driving behind her). But to WHOM was she being courteous?
Now, as a driver, I also DO NOT want to stop for any pedestrian OTHER than those on a crosswalk with the right of way. If it is raining hard and the pedestrian has no umbrella and they want to cross the street, by all means I will attempt to be nice as i’m nice and cozy in my car and they are facing the elements. But for god sakes watch for other cars because they might not have good visibility.
Maybe living in Taipei for 2 years and Seoul for one year skewed my opinion on this, but for me i simply GO when i can, i don’t wait for cars to stop, I let them go and make my way across the street, often waiting between lanes for a good chance to get to the next one.
Agreed. Good post. Being curteous to one person often ends up inconveniencing more than that. And the person you’re being curteous to is the one in the wrong.
I jaywalk all the time when I’m walking, but I have NO expectations of anyone stopping for me. And I also realize that if I get hit while jaywalking, it’s my own friggin’ fault.
Also agree. There are a number of “courtesies” that happen in traffic here that are actually disruptive or even dangerous. Slowing down considerably on the highway to allow drivers to merge in front of you is a major one. So many potential rear-endings happen because of this. I once saw a woman come to a complete stop on the Bayer’s Road / 102 hill to let someone in from the on-ramp from Joseph Howe Drive. I was really surprised this didn’t cause an accident but several drivers behind her were obviously panicked by it. And don’t get me started on the you-go-no-you-go at 4-way stops. Sheesh.
Where I am right now I would kill for drivers to stop once in a while. But I agree, a lone car deciding to speed by while I cross afterwards quickens up the process a lot.
agreed to the above
Jesus. People bitch when people DON’T stop for them to cross, then people bitch when people DO stop for them to cross….
Is ANYONE ever satisfied around here?
ALSO: maybe they’re watching you cross to make sure you’re out of the cross walk before they proceed? You’d probably bitch if they hit your ass because they didn’t watch to make sure you were out of the CW before they proceeded…frigsakes.
PK I agree, seems drivers are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. But what really got me is that this bitch is really more about “car pollution” than anything else. Sorry but stopping or not isn’t going to make a difference.
I also found the “car pollution” part to be a little ridiculous Bro Tim.
I agree if the pedestrian decides to jaywalk but to clarify, the pedestrian has the right of way at any intersection whether there is a marked crosswalk or not. If a driver fails to yield in such a situation they could be charged. Not worth it in my opinion.
I agree and disagree with this post. If it’s just me, or one or two other cars, unless you are jumping out in front of me, I will generally keep going. If there is a huge line of cars behind me, and it’s not on a highway, or fast paced double lane rd, sometimes I WILL stop to to let you cross. If there are two lanes, forget it, I’d be more likely to get you killed by people in the other lane oblivious to what is happening. Sometime though, even if I’m the only car, people will START out in front of me and I have no choice but to stop and watch you cross the street.
But yes, I agree with others- the pollution aspect is stupid. It’s not like we’d be sitting and idling for more than 30 seconds.
Agreed, agreed, a-greed. I’ve never come across drivers quite like the ones in this city. KEEP. IT. MOVING. I’m not crippled, nor am I an idiot, so if I’m not at a crosswalk and decide to go anyway, that’s my responsibility. I’ll make my way across when I see fit; you just pay attention to more obvious hazards (say, yakking on your cell phone like a stupid twat). Also, as someone who often drives, I like to think I see the problem from both sides. Those who are predominantly ‘one or the other’ often can’t grasp the obvious when it comes to the other viewpoint. Still, there’s nothing worse than a motorized clown who stops the flow of traffic for whatever nonsensical reason, jaywalking or otherwise. Drivers and pedestrians in New York have the right idea: if there’s an opening, you take it and make everything MOVE as swiftly, efficiently and safely as possible. Traffic in cities is already enough of a pain in the ass without your wrongheaded “politeness” further fucking things up. In a word: flooow.
i don’t disagree with the environmental aspect of the post. When one car going 50km/h stops, it loses its forward momentum and takes quite a bit of energy to resume a 50km/h speed. Not significant, but if there are 4 cars that are all forced to stop, and then because opposite traffic sees there are 4 cars stopped to let a pedestrian cross the street, the lead car decides it is good to stop as well, which may hold up 4 cars behind IT. So 8 cars are stopped.
Now if there are two lanes in each direction, they MUST stop as well. Realistically, there could be a dozen cars that must use their brakes and come to a stop, and then all simutaneously accelerate. That is a waste of resources.
The crosser would be smart to wait for a good chance to cross when no cars are around. It just makes more sense.
The answer is all in that lesson we were taught when we were young.
“Look both ways before crossing the street, and cross when no one is coming.”
I barely use crosswalks because I don’t need a flashing light and painted white lines to help me cross the street, my brain can do it for me just fine in most circumstances.
I gotta say, I am VERY grateful when someone stops for me to cross from the bus stop on the other side of the street to my apt…it’s often impossible to get across since I’m just up for a major intersection that’s quite busy, but far enough that there’s no frigging point to getting off at my stop if I”m going to walk down TO said intersection to cross. And I mean after a long ass day I sure don’t want to wait and wait for the traffic to clear so I can cross the street. I just want to get HOME.
“The crosser would be smart to wait for a good chance to cross when no cars are around. It just makes more sense.”
Uhm…true, but there aren’t a whole lot of smart ones I’ve noticed. Most of the time people just jump out in front of the cars, knowing they will stop to avoid hitting them (in most cases anyway). Either that or give you a dirty look as you drive past like you just did something horribly rude.
Yup, gotta love the idiots crossing the Circ between Highfield and Burnside. But I guess it proves there is a God. I haven’t heard any pedestrian being thrown 100ft from being hit.