I’m both a pedestrian and a driver that has lived here and in major cities across Canada. This is the only city I have lived in where too many pedestrians can’t cross the street properly. You either cross at a crosswalk, at lights when it is green, or cross a street when there are no cars. YOU CAN’T just walk out into a busy street and expect cars to hammer on their brakes. In any other city you would be a hood ornament. LEARN TO CROSS. Most six-year-olds have more sense. —HRM’s Top Driver
This article appears in Mar 18-24, 2010.
yeah, I almost got to watch a cab cream an older lady today.
We’re not going to learn…
we have more of a chance of Peter Kelly creating bridge walkways at every intersection…
and we all know how much HE loves to work
you’re including yonge st. on a weekend summer nite that’s a drivers nitemare man
hmmm.top driver…sorry i have that title already
once you stop thinking of it as a major city things will become clear. when i first moved here it drove me batty…now with the pink and drugs it’s easier^^
it usually isn’t that people don’t know how to cross, it the fucking attitude some have, and drivers are just as bad.if you wanna be a douche to play chicken, with a car or truck, let me know how it turns out, from your hospital bed or slab.
Blame the higher-ups for making it law that every intersection is a crosswalk. Great idea when trying to cross 4-lanes on Akerley, or even better, the intersection on Windmill next to the old army surplus store.
As a pedestrian I’m not stupid enough to believe cars will give the right of way and as a motorist I’ll only stop at unmarked crosswalks if its safe to do so.
You think HRM’s bad? Try Wolfville.
My back bumper says wolfville’s worse :|
Yet another bad parenting issue in my opinion, I get really irritated when I see parents dragging their kids across the street at inappropriate times… welcome jaywalkers of the future.
I want to be a jaywalker cop! I’ll pop a cap in their asses!
I break the law all the time as both a pedestrian and a driver, and know what? I’m sure we all do, each and every single day!
Start crossing the street when the red hand has started flashing? You’re breaking the law!
Jaywalking? Breaking the law!
Going even 1 km/hr over the speed limit? Breaking the law!
Not coming to a full and complete stop at every Stop Sign behind the marked or imaginary crosswalk before proceeding forward? Law breaker!
Don’t stop for a pedestrian at ANY intersection looking to cross the street? Criminal!
Don’t turn your wheels into the curb (or outward when facing uphill) when you’re parked? ILLEGAL!
None of these things are that bad, of course, but it’s still, technically, against the law.
I’m glad I live in a city which is probably the most courteous to pedestrians I have seen anywhere. I don’t stop for jaywalkers though, and if they do just jump out right in front of me anyway, they get a blast on the horn (which, I think, is also illegal).
A handful of kids about Junior High/High School age did this at the corner of Alderney/Portland St the other day and it filled me with rage. They were crossing at a light that has walk/don’t walk lights directly against the traffic and none of the cars that they were preventing from going through the intersection WITH THE RIGHT OF WAY even bothered to so much as honk at them. I feel like March Break has gone to their collective heads.
I was stopped at a red light the other day and when it turned green I still couldn’t go because some old bitch was walking DIAGONALLY across the intersection at the slowest pace possible without being standing still.
I’ll be the first to admit that I jay walk on a regular basis — the bus stop is across the street from my apartment and I’m not walking to the next cross walk to cross then walk back up (the cross walk is quite a ways away — PAST the NEXT bus stop, in fact, so what would be the point of that?)…I *do* however, have enough sense to wait until it’s clear to cross because I have sightlines to the intersection and about 1/2km in the other direction, so I have plenty of time to cross without making cars stop or having to run.
Who doesn’t jay-walk from time to time? Sometimes it is just impractical to go to the next crosswalk. I’ll tell you though- I am not as stupid as some of the pedestrians in this city. You have to be a dumbass to assume that because you are crossing a street that every driver in Halifax will stop to allow you to continue. I have seen one too many people get flattened by a car to risk my neck “trusting” the vision/perception of drivers. Trust goes both ways…. just as we have the right-of-way at cross walks and hope for drivers to respect that, they have the right-of-way everywhere else and we are to respect that.
Don’t worry. If you hit them outside of a crosswalk, they’re fuct. You can sue them.
Joggers think that the traffic laws don’t apply to them. I saw a young lady jog through an intersection on SGR against traffic. The car honked their horn but she didn’t pay attention.
It’s great that you’re staying in shape but you won’t live longer pulling stunts like that.
hey we haven’t had a jogger bitch in awhile…with the red nose marathon approaching it will soon begin
OP, most pedestrians and bikers in general feel entitled as they are saving the world… Thus laws don’t apply to them like they do us polluting folk. If they cross illegally, mow em down, that’ll learn em!
Park the cars and start walking… you don’t need multiple tonnes of steel around you JUST to go downtown….
I’m glad Halifax it’s not like other major cities. Being able to cross the road without worrying about being run over by some megalomaniac intentionally trying to drive over you like is NOT a BAD thing.
The fact that people stop indicates that they are still aware of the world around them, and not stuck in little narcissistic bubbles.
I wasn’t at a track meet…
only trying to get ‘cross the street.
I felt the breeze pass
over the crack of my ass.
you damn near knocked me off of my feet
snapped your plate but not for a ticket
in a parking lot now I can pick it
by your car I stand
with wiper in hand
and turned sideways, I know where you can stick it
I know how to cross the street just fine, thank you. Press the button, wait for cars to stop, never cross against the red unless it’s 12am and there are no cars for miles.
However, if the drivers could learn not to speed through crosswalks I’m legally crossing in, learn not to honk their horns at me when I have the walk sign and learn not to assume that turning right on red doesn’t require looking for pedestrians at all, I’d appreciate it.
jaywalking is the gateway crime
Just to reiterate voice of reasons post above, it is legal to cross the street at any intersection, marked crosswalk or not. It’s the attitude that I’m in a car so I take precedence over anyone else that needs to change. I did like your ironic user name though ….