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Comment by chrisseaton | Hacker News Reader

> In Santa Clara, California, there are several crosswalks at intersections not controlled by a traffic light.

Isn't that what a zebra crossing is for? Give pedestrians permanent right of way so they can always go and don't need a light and everyone understands that they need to yield.

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On a road with high traffic speed and not enough visibility of pedestrians waiting at the side of the road, most motorists won't yield

What about a pelican crossing? Red yellow and green lights for cars like at a junction, activated by pedestrians pressing a button. Wikipedia says these only came to the US in the year 2000, which seems ridiculous.

People still blow past them, in my experience. The only real way to make roads safer for pedestrians is to remove all the cars.

Wow. Surely (and especially if there are red-light cameras) that'd be an automatic ticket, with fine and points? Same for not stopping at a zebra crossing. I can't say I've ever witnessed this sort of behaviour in the UK, except maybe as exceptional events shown on 'World's Worst Driver' clip shows on TV...

In some jurisdictions (like mine - Los Angeles), traffic cameras have been deemed illegal because the law stipulates that a person must witness the infraction, and a camera doesn't count.

It happens to me at least once a month. It's regular enough that you have to pay attention whenever you're crossing here, even if you have the right of way and you're in the middle of the road and there are bright flashing lights indicating your presence.

I think about 25% of drivers should have their licenses pulled, because it's my experience that they don't have the judgement to operate a motor vehicle safely.

They're on multilane, high-speed roads (meaning a bridge/tunnel or traffic lights are the only actually safe solutions).

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