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The time wasted "creating crime" could have been used to combat crime.
i see these "stings" as a good way to educate the public.....the drivers will tell their friends and their friends tell their friends. You quickly get a number of folks talking about this and becoming more aware that they should stop at the pedestrian crosswalks. My opinion of course. yours may be different.
i see these "stings" as a good way to educate the public.....the drivers will tell their friends and their friends tell their friends. You quickly get a number of folks talking about this and becoming more aware that they should stop at the pedestrian crosswalks. My opinion of course. yours may be different.
Me personally, I think many times pedestrians casually strolling into a crosswalk and expecting multiple cars to stop for little old them are being selfish. Why should multiple cars have to stop for one single person? Why can't the pedestrian, rather than immediately pushing the button, actually WAIT a few seconds and cross when almost no cars are coming? Those people in those cars have somewhere to be, and in large cities there's enough things tripping them up as it is, they need to be able to get a move on with minimal interruptions. To me, those pedestrians are no more important than the people in the cars, in fact I might even say they are LESS important.
I used to live in a large city with crosswalks, and as a motorist I hated it. Someone would always walk into that crosswalk and then cause cars to back up while they would just stroll all slowly and casually like they've got all day. Well I don't, I've got somewhere to be. How about RUNNING and getting out of my way quickly? On the occasions that I was the pedestrian, I seriously would wait until I got clearance and then RUN across the road, to, you know, get out of the freaking way. I didn't just stroll all casually and slowly like I had all day, and make dozens of cars have to wait on little old me that way. That sort of thing is just selfish to me.
I've seen it mentioned, but no one answers. If a person steps off a curb on the opposite side of a divided roadway, 4 or 6 lanes away from where you are on the opposite side, are you expected to stop?
Depends on if the law says you have to yield for pedestrians or stop for them. If you only have to yield to them, you can proceed if they're a safe distance away from your car. If you have to stop for them, then you're technically expected to sit there for however long it takes for them to completely clear the crosswalk.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dkf747
Another question: if someone walking stops at the curb and stands there, are you expected to stop? I've seen people just stand there, with no intention of crossing. Shouldn't they need to signal intent the same as cars use signals?
In my experience you'll never get cars to stop if you're just standing there waiting for them to stop. You have to assert your right-of-way and basically dare them to hit you.
Around here, most of the crosswalks that aren't at all-way controlled intersections are a suicide run. Even if cars wanted to stop for you, there's so many other things they have to pay attention to like other traffic, traffic signs, stop lights ahead, cars pulling out from parking lots and on-street parking spots, etc., plus a good number of crosswalks are partially obstructed by parked cars so you're cruising along at a reasonable speed and bam!, a pedestrian pops out from behind a parked car. And then if you do stop for them and they start walking in front of you, you can count on a 50% chance that someone will blow by you in the other lane and nearly mow them down anyway.
I'm all for giving pedestrians the right-of-way at clearly marked crosswalks with lots of signage and clear lines of sight and all that... but absent that, expecting cars to stop for pedestrians they can't even see until they're almost on top of them is unreasonable. Either design the crosswalks so they can't be missed, with clear lines of sight to the each curb (with curb jut-outs and parking restrictions if necessary), or make it so that pedestrians either cross at their own risk or find their way to a all-way controlled intersection.
I've got another question. Here we have a trail used by bikes, joggers, walkers, etc... The trail has stop signs on it while the road that crosses it doesn't. My understanding of stop signs is that they have to wait for traffic to clear. This sting thing has me wondering if we're expected to stop for people waiting at their stop sign to cross?
yea so give people tickets for not slamming their breaks and getting their cars slamme into in a busy intersection when there was no chance of hitting anyone. well done cops.
That's the thing, if you get hit in the back end, the pedestrian might get hit and you will be sued because it was your car that hit him.
I agree! I wait until it is clear or traffic approaching a red light and walk as fast as I can. Some just stroll along, chatting.
The thing I can't take is watching people on bicycles just fly through stop signs. God help us all if we hit one, won't matter that we have the right away thinking others are following the rules.
Hello life imprisonment.
Seems like a situation where everyone needs to work together just a little bit.
Definitely the pedestrian has "the right of way". But those rules were written when we were a nation of barely a quarter of the population which we are now.
Pedestrians "can" be courteous, and so can motorists.
If the police want to start enforcing a law which they have ignored for generations, that is fine. But start a public awareness campaign first, and then go after the scofflaws.
Me thinks a lot of this is just a new way for towns/cops to generate revenue. Imagine that????
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