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Comment by Malic | Hacker News Reader

It's not quite the same thing but I can verify that certain Scandinavian countries really expect you to "get a move on" when crossing the street. There isn't enough time to walk across crosswalks in Denmark, for example, if you don't have some spring in your step.

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Is that not OK? In the UK I get the impression you can trundle along at any speed and assume the people in the cars have the decency not to mow you down until their lane is free even if the green man is red now.

Jay-Walking though is crazy as a law. I prefer NOT to use traffic lights where traffic allows.

Well in UK there is no Jay-Walking Law (Pedestrians have right of way).

The crossing time is set at 1.2 m/s, to complete the crossing from the end of the Green.

>Well in UK there is no Jay-Walking Law (Pedestrians have right of way).

In California at least, pedestrians have the right of way, but Jay-walking is still illegal.

That's 2.68 mph in freedom units

In the UK there are mostly puffin crossings, which sense when pedestrians are still crossing and hold the lights for them.

> In the UK I get the impression you can trundle along at any speed

the regulation is that peds must not delay on crossings.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1997/2400/part/I/crosshea...

> 19. No pedestrian shall remain on the carriageway within the limits of a crossing longer than is necessary for that pedestrian to pass over the crossing with reasonable despatch.

(I'm not sure this is latest version)

That covers standalone pedestrians crossing, junctions is TSRGD. But same principal pedestrians must reasonably cross, but Green -> Only Go if the way ahead is clear..

In Sweden, at some point they removed the "blinking" phase near the end of the crosswalk green light without making the green phase any longer. This is to avoid people see it go blinking and then running across the crosswalk. This means it feels like you don't have enough time to walk across before it goes red (even though the cars still have to wait)

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