Do pedestrians still have the right of way?

I was just almost hit by a young girl. I was already in the crosswalk and she came barreling up to the stop sign looking left but never looking to the right, where I was walking. If I hadn't have stopped abruptly she would have hit me. I shouted at her to watch it and this lovely young woman started SCREAMING at me that I should "watch where I was going", gave me the finger and drove off. :wtf: Then another 'fine young man' :eyes: and his girlfriend in the car behind her started yelling, "fu5# you asshole" and damned near ran me down as well never even stopping at the stop sign! Oh yeah, I'm 55 years old and partially disabled, I don't walk as fast as I used to but I get the feeling no matter how fast I walked it wouldn't have been fast enough for them.

I was taught that pedestrians had the right of way in a crosswalk. Always. Not according to these two teenage drivers. I'd better get the hell out of their way or I'm toast! :grr: If these two teenagers are a representative sample of what we have to look forward to in the future then I'd rather not participate in said future. I have a feeling we've raised a generation of "me, me, me" children that will NEVER grow up! It isn't just these two, I've noticed a whole shit-load of these brats in the few years. It just seems to be getting worse, that's all.

Alright, I'm done. I just had to vent. I can't believe the selfish, self-centered, spoiled brats I've run across lately. Or have almost run across me, I should say! :rant:

where she is supposed to come to a complete stop and look around. But yes, I think pedestrians always have the right of way.

but drivers are the rudest people on earth. I walk with either a cane or crutches depending on how much pain I'm in that day. I get chased out of intersections all the time but drivers who think it's fun to torment the cripple.

I once punched a taxi in NYC that almost hit me when I had the right of way. The driver really did not appreciate that.

it's too bad you couldn't reach in his window and grabbed him by the throat.

There are very few people in this world that I will spear at, but egotistical, dangerous drivers one among them.

A former roommate was a serious golf nut, and had a very short fuse. We were playing a course that was divided by a busy street, and there was a crosswalk with a traffic light for the golfers to use (you know the drill- push the button and eventually the signal changes). It was around noon on a weekday, so the lunchtime traffic was in full swing. We pushed the button and began walking across when the signal changed. Some old biddy in a Coupe deVille came to a screeching halt and started cussing us out for being in her way, blah blah blah... I gave her the stink eye, but my roommate decided she had crossed the line. He grabbed his 5-iron and took her hood ornament clean off with one stroke. :headbang:

I was careful to stay on his good side after that....

I think it's a state by state thing.

Be that as it may, she still should have let you go. Glad you are OK. :hug:

I lived in California for a year and was amazed when all the traffic stopped the first time I was in a crosswalk. Wasn't like that in Florida where I moved from.

vague about what "right of way" means. Does it mean that a driver must wait until a pedestrian completely clears the crosswalk and has reached the opposite curb before he (the driver) can make a right turn? Most drivers don't think so, because they proceed as soon as the pedestrian has cleared the lane they are turning into.

I checked the motor vehicle code and it only states that pedestrians have the "right of way" - no further explanation. Lately, the police in my area have been ticketing drivers who proceed when a pedestrian is still anywhere in the crosswalk. When I stay put until a pedestrian reaches the opposite curb before I make a right turn, I inevitably get honked at (and worse) by the impatient driver behind me.

I figure there's little risk of hitting someone who is no longer there.

tickets in my town is that the pedestrian could drop something, suddenly turn around, etc., and that you are not free to make the turn until he/she has safely reached the opposite sidewalk. A driver wrote an irate letter to the local paper complaining about this and said the officer told her the pedestrian has an "absolute" right to the full intersection.

Not saying I agree with the ticket, but it's become a moneymaker for the police around here.

and that I should happen to still be there, I will be going a maximum of 5 mph and will have no trouble stopping. Unless my brakes are shot, but then I would not have been able to stop in the first place.

Edit : I think the money thing is right. That's pretty much the primary goal of issuing tickets of any kind.

police care about around here. The local paper runs a "police blotter" every week detailing all manner of burglary, vandalism, etc. Meantime, at the main intersection in town,there are always three or four officers busily issuing traffic citations. It's a racket.

priorities. When I took driver's ed back in the stone age we were taught to assume that the pedestrian ALWAYS has the right of way even when he's jaywalking and dancing in place. Sure, if you hit a jaywalker that person is expected to bear responsibility, but do any of us really want to experience scraping a human off the windshield?

Called zebra crossings in Britain; I forget what we call them here. Otherwise, you're treated just like cars or bikes, ie, stop at Stop signs and red lights, proceed as traffic or green lights allow. However, those people were absolutely asshats, should have yielded you right-of-way, and should have apologized profusely for nearly hitting you rather than cursing. Suggest that you start writing down license tags and reporting them; these people are road hazards and need to have their licenses taken away. Sorry you went through this.

hit my son's stroller a few years back. Didn't notice that. Didn't notice the yelling to stop thier damned car. They sure noticed when my kid's Dad kicked a big fucking dent in thier door though. :P

For the record, these were old people in a Buick leaving the Kaiser refill pharmacy. Perhaps they were too pilled up to drive safely, perhaps they were simply too fucking old to see or hear anymore, honestly I don't give a shit because they were about 18 inches away from killing my kid.

There are dangerous drivers of all ages out there.

that maybe it's time to give up the car. At some point you have to accept that you should not be driving.

I'm sure they went home and called thier kids up to tell them about the deranged man who attacked thier buick for no good reason. They probably won't be out of the car until they succeed in killing somebody or until they die. :(

They cross without looking, they walk diagonally across the street, they stand in the middle of the road while chatting. Parents don't seem to teach kids to look both ways or stay out of the road. It's like people believe a car couldn't possibly hurt them and that all drivers are perfectly attentive to their whereabouts. I've started hating that "Pedestrians have the right away" mentality, not because it inconveniences me as a driver (I also walk, ride my bike and jog a lot, so I'm on all ends of that battle), but because it leads to pedestrians being injured or killed because they expect everyone else to watch out for them.

Cars are bigger than people, and you can be legally right and still be pretty damned dead if you don't yield to them when necessary.

In the case you describe, though, sounds like you were right and they were wrong, both legally and ethically. My basic rule of thumb is based on manners. If there is only one car and it can get through a crosswalk faster than I can walk or bike, I let them go first. Seems more courteous to me. Since you were already crossing before they stopped, they should have let you go. Oh, and anyone showing signs of difficulty crossing get the right of way automatically. Canes, the elderly, parents with smaller children, people carrying groceries, etc.

In my own little world, that's the way it works. :-)

pedestrians have absolute ROW in marked crosswalks (except for at traffic lights where they have to wait for the signal like everyone else.) I like it, except for when I'm driving and jaywalking abusers jump out in the street and expect me to stop, or people with no common sense who will jump into the crosswalk from between parked cars like I can just stop on a dime or something.

There are times when drivers need to grow up.

There are times when pedestrians are just begging to be splattered; particularly when they jaywalk or deliberately stall and stare at you in arrogance.

In a civilized society, EVERYBODY must do their part or else we're not a society at all.

who cause accidents, but it's the pedestrians who get hurt. If you're going to be driving a ton of machinery down the road you have a bit more responsibility than the guy walking.

being right. Being right doesn't make a difference when you've been killed.

Drivers should also quit acting like assholes on the road

the drivers may hesitate for a 1/100th of a second at one but often they just blow them or (what I love) go "two at a time."

Its a total joke. I've nearly been killed about a gazillion times either at stop signs, crossing with the light and left turners who keep nudging me across the intersection or try to zoom in front of me or at alleys where they exit fast with no horn.

Pedestrians here are really targets. Every time I come home I'm relieved I'm still alive.

We had a terrible situation here last weekend when a toddler was killed by a hit and run driver as her family left the Zoo.

Last summer we saw a runner who had been hit on the same street as the little girl but a bit further north - this silver SUV Lexus must have run the stop sign and he was hit and his head went through the windshield - right through it!

either. Here's one thing I've noticed the last few years: I get to a 4-way intersection first and begin to make a left turn. The guy to my left (heading straight) eases into the intersection BEFORE I FINISH MY TURN. In other words, if I were to stop (engine dies, kid runs into the street, something), he'd broadside me!

"4. What about 4 directions of cars waiting at a 4-way stop?

The alternating directions take turns. In other words, north and south go, then west and east. Those turning left yeild to the car coming the opposite direction, just like with a green light. "

http://krmg.com/traffic/4waystop.html


On edit: Oh, I get it! You mean that you're going North and turning to the West while the driver going from the West to the East drives into the intersection. Yeah that's bad.

Unfortunately the way people drive (cell-phone, etc), any one in a cross walk, will end up dead right.

Now if you are at a stop light intersection, then you are responsible for obeying the Walk signals.

:hi:

with my 10 year old son just the other day. He was asking why I always let pedestrians walk in front of me, and I explained that people walking always have the right of way. I told him it's just safer that way, and it's also a matter of common courtesy. After all, the driver is in a 2000 lb rolling weapon and pedestrians are in soft, easy damaged bodies. He agreed it made sense. So, I don't think it's the age of the drivers so much as it is that some people are just assholes.

(Plus I think it would help if people would just slow the fuck down, life is not a race to the finish line. :) )

for pedestrians in a crosswalk anymore. It's ridiculous. If I'm driving, I stop every time I see someone trying to use a crosswalk, and a couple of times I've had people behind me either start honking their horn or just drive around me (cutting off and nearly hitting the pedestrian, of course). Yay for people!

If someone in front of you stopped at a stop sign, DO NOT #$@%! go around them and run the stop sign!
:grr:

He was going south, on a cross-street from where I was, heading east...and some jackass behind me decides his schedule is too important to wait 30 seconds for a freakin' AMBULANCE to pass, so he pulls around me and into the intersection, causing the ambulance to slam on the brakes, etc. People really amaze me sometimes.

stop for some poor, patient pedestrian who's waiting at a crosswalk -- with every right of passage -- and the idiot in the adjacent lane roars through beside me, even if they've plenty of time to see that I'd stopped and why I've stopped, and almost collects the streetwalker. Infuriating. And so potentially lethal.

Cell 'phones don't help, but there were awful, egocentric drivers about before they became so widespread.

Here in CA, cars yield to pedestrians, which is fine as long as everyone knows that, *but* I do not think it makes sense.

anyone well after they'd been struck and killed. Knowing this is what driving defensively and walking defensively are all about.

I have been a pedestrian for 2 1/2 years. People are assholes on the road. I've had garbage thrown at me, I've had people swerve at me intentionally, I've had people scream at me, a lot of people like to honk as they come up behind me (and yes I stay on the sidewalk- it's simply a "fuck you" to me, the pedestrian).
And I've been nearly hit a few times as well.

I still prefer walking to driving, though.

My car was in the shop and I needed to get to work, so I'm waiting at my neighborhood bus stop. I see a pickup approaching and before he gets to me he gives me one of those friendly taps on the horn. I'm thinking it must be one of my neighbors or someone else who recognizes me. As he passes me he leans all the way over to the passenger side window so he can flip me the finger as he passes. :wtf:

I'm still trying to figure it out when I hear him toot his horn again at the next bus stop a couple blocks down the street. The bus arrives and picks me up then picks up the dude down the street. I ask him if some guy in a pickup truck just flipped him off. He says, "yeah, how did you know?" So I tell him he had just done it to me.

I guess that's the pickup driver's morning routine. Drive around and flip off people waiting at bus stops. Some peopl are just assholes, I guess.

At least he didn't throw anything at me. That usually happens when I'm on my bicycle.

at $2.75 a gallon.

I hate those people. But I love walking. Started running again last night, too (more a slow crawl, though quyalifies, biomechanically, as running...started in November after a couple of years' break but got sick for a month soon after) -- maybe I'll be a tougher target to hit if I'm running.

My most recent encounter with carborne scum:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=5179590

:-(

Drives me nuts.

and end up smearing themselves on a guardrail some night :toast:

Though having said that, I would GIVE them the right of way if it were me in a car and the only other option was hitting them.

If a pedestrian is at an intersection where there is a walk/don't walk signal, and a pedestrian walks out into the road when the signal says "don't walk" AND oncoming cars have the legal right-of-way, the pedestrian in the wrong, though God help any driver who hit a pedestrian. What a freakin' nightmare that would be!

In Seattle, they are pretty anal about jaywalking, etc. You can get a ticket for crossing against the light.

I came close to hitting TWO kids one night. I was at an intersection, and after looking both ways, and seeing no oncoming cars, and no one in the crosswalk, I turned. About 20 feet from the crosswalk, my headlights picked up a reflection near the ground. Well, the reflection was from two pair of tennis shows, on the feet of two kids. I slammed on my brakes, and an oncoming car that had just turned onto the street also slammed on the brakes. Scared the crap out of me, how close I came to hitting these kids.

Here's the deal: it was dark, there was no streetlight in the area the kids were walking in, AND they were dressed all in black. Turns out, the kids were heading to the same little store I was, so when they walked in, I lit into them, because I was angry, and I was upset at how close I had come to hitting them. They looked at me like I was a freakin' alien.

That's the other side of the equation, there. As to what you went through, there is absolutely NO excuse for what happened to you, and thank goodness you weren't hurt. Unfortunately, some people are absolute assholes in their vehicles, they have no patience for pedestrians (or other people in other vehicles).

we have to stop in Oregon. I know that because the cops went on a little ticket frenzy a few months ago.

What if the person steps out into a crosswalk AGAINST the light. Now, hopefully any oncoming cars would stop or do whatever they could to avoid hitting the person. But just from a legal standpoint, if a pedestrian started to cross against the light, would they get a ticket? Here in Seattle, they would.

is that if a person has a foot in a crosswalk, EVERYBODY has to stop going both directions. I don't know about crossing against the light, I've never heard of any pedestrian getting a ticket here.

:hi:

and there was a intersection with a stoplight and crosswalk. The problem was the little darlings didn't always stop for the light. Sometimes, they would completely take over the intersection for several light cycles backing up traffic forever. I understand that they are trying to get to school. Well, we are trying to get to work. So why not take turns? That's all a stop light is, taking turns!

My favorites were the ones who exaggerated walking in slow motion, all the while keeping the corner of their eye on the drivers, looking for any respsonse. Of course, any horn tap would draw the finger. What a bunch of assholes.

There are also several stores (mostly food stores) plus a couple of fast food places around too. And those little shits will walk across the street aaaaaaaas ssssssssloooooooly aaaaaaaas pooooooosssssssssisssssible, just to piss people off. I wanna grab them by the collar and smack 'em for that! (Of course, I don't because then I would get in trouble, so I just give them dirty looks and curse them with hopes that THEIR children will drive them mad!)

And a few have been killed in the process. I'm not big on teen bashing, they're supposed to act like that. I don't know what the adults' excuse is.

:shrug:

That sort of behavior is alien to me or anyone else I know around my town. Everyone knows each other and if some little twerp did that to me or anyone I know his/her parents would learn about, and take care of it.

Just as a sidenote, I recently left Maine to visit my sister. It's been a LONG time. Anyway, I found people down there to be so aloof it was scarey. Meanwhile, folks looked at me as if I was a nut for speaking to them at the grocery store or whatever. Also the checkout people don't say "Thank You" or "Have a Nice Day!" Not that I care much about fake gratitude... But the silence was just plain akward.... :crazy:


Sorry to get off subject. I don't know if pedestrians have the right of way, but it seems to me they should if this is a touristy or shopping type of area. Call your local Chamber of Commerce or City/Town Office and see what they say.

If you don't feel like it, that's fine too as I know how it feels to just want to vent. :-)

but you won't know it from some of the comments here http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1265109

And we don't have stupid stupid people anxious to race around everywhere at the greatest possible speed because "y'know you gotta live every second and only at the destination are you living because you gotta be doing something lalalalala stupid crap and that is why you must make your car trip as thoroughly unenjoyable as possible for yourself and everyone else"

because they consider it an invasion of privacy?

:shrug:
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