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Comment by dumbfounder | Hacker News Reader

I live in a walkable neighborhood but there are a lot of people that commute through my neighborhood to downtown DC. There are crosswalks where cars are supposed to stop for pedestrians, but many don't. I feel like the rise of these laws that require cars to stop at these crosswalks has to be part of the problem. Cars are supposed to stop but they are either driving too fast or they just don't stop. Or if you have a few lanes to cross the first car stops and the next car doesn't see you. I feel like these crosswalks give people a false sense of security that they can cross without vigilance at any time. Without these laws you simply need to wait until the coast is clear. That seems much safer to me. Is there a study to support my instincts on this?

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It sounds like you are blaming pedestrians for not being "vigilant" enough, when in reality it is the cars that are not stopping and giving way to pedestrians on a crosswalk like they're supposed to.

>these crosswalks give people a false sense of security that they can cross without vigilance at any time

I'm Australian so I'm not sure if a crosswalk is exactly the same, but the whole point of what we call a "pedestrian crossing" is that a pedestrian can cross at any time with as much or as little vigilance as they want.

It is illegal to not give way and it is illegal to drive across the pedestrian crossing if there is a pedestrian already on it.

I very much doubt you'll be able to locate a study showing that jaywalking is safer than crossing at a pedestrian crossing.

Not jaywalking. It used to be that you had to cross at a crosswalk AND wait for traffic to be clear. The crosswalk was the place to cross to make sure people weren't crossing at any place they choose. But now that there are laws that require you to stop at any crosswalk with a pedestrian in it, people are crossing and they expect the cars to stop, but not every driver is in tune with this, especially those from outside the city, and it creates a dangerous situation.

Basically you are saying that because the drivers are not obeying the laws, we should throw our hands up and admit it's impossible and change the laws so they have right of way.

That's a fair position to take, but I would be questioning why it is that the drivers are unaware or unwilling to obey those laws?

>I feel like these crosswalks give people a false sense of security that they can cross without vigilance at any time.

Yes, if the walking-person symbol is on the thing, I expect to be able to walk without dodging these megaton deathtraps who want to be one minute earlier to the job they hate. I especially despise that cars are even allowed to turn into a street while pedestrians are crossing. What's the point of the walking-person symbol light if you're gonna allow cars to go through anyway during it? Dumb.

We have crosswalks without intersections, or without signals, as well as traditional crosswalks at lights with signals and walk signs. I am talking about the ones in the middle of a road with no signals at all. I am not blaming the pedestrians, I am the pedestrian a lot of the time. But blaming half the people for not stopping means that something is wrong. If there are laws that most people do not follow or have trouble following then you need to re-examine the law, no matter who is to blame. I just don’t want my kids to get run over, that is my goal.

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