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When the route to work was mostly bike trails and I only encountered two heavy traffic intersections, I cycled to the office a few days a week. Otherwise, it's
by stretchwithme 8y ago
When the route to work was mostly bike trails and I only encountered two heavy traffic intersections, I cycled to the office a few days a week.
Otherwise, it's just too dangerous from my perspective. Too many drivers do not pay attention.
- choward 8y agoWalking can also be dangerous. Especially if you follow the laws. If find it a lot safer the do the made up crime of "jaywalking" between intersections than crossing legally. I have had several close calls crossing legally because of people just not paying attention. I have had zero close calls crossing between intersections.
- chrisseaton 8y agoAm I right in thinking that American traffic lights don’t actually stop cars for pedestrians? They just sort of give you more priority don’t they? What’s the advantage of crossing away from the lights?
- war1025 8y agoAway from the lights you have 2 directions to check for traffic from. At an intersection you have to be aware of people coming from 4 directions potentially turning towards you.
- chrisseaton 8y agoJust wait for your turn to cross at the lights? People don’t often just full on run red lights do they?
- war1025 8y agoThe walk light will often be on at the same time as the green light for drivers going the same direction. Sometimes a turning driver won't notice you. Doesn't happen that often, but happens often enough that you have to be aware of it. A lot of times it is just easier to cross in the middle of a block because you have a much better buffer area where random cars can't pop out from. Obviously it depends on the particular road. If it is some 6 lane wide main thoroughfare, I'd probably opt for the cross walk.
- chrisseaton 8y ago> The walk light will often be on at the same time as the green light for drivers going the same direction. Well that’s just bonkers. Where I live when a pedestrian wants to cross the lights stop all cars for the duration.
- choward 8y agoExactly. Turning cars are by far the biggest problem.
- Jtsummers 8y agoThey may not fully run it, but they often stop in the crosswalk here (GA). I live in a very walkable area and have to be very careful crossing the one major busy street even when they don’t run the light. By the time I’m confident they will actually stop, the light is almost ready to change again.
- apathy 8y agoYes, regularly.
- MaulingMonkey 8y agoWe have legal right turns on red here. Cars will look left for a gap, and not notice the pedestrian crossing to their right when the light turns green & walk at the same time. Distracted people might not go until the light turns green (no arrow, so they're supposed to yield), and not notice the pedestrian trying to cross when they got the walk symbol. Compounding matters - several drivers don't stop before the crosswalk like they're supposed to, so people in the rightmost lane go even farther into the crosswalk so they can look left for gaps in traffic - often fast enough they don't have time to react to pedestrians. Cars turning left on green (but no arrow) often won't notice crossing pedestrians they're supposed to yield to either. They may stop, but now they're blocking oncoming traffic (often hazardous), so they're likely to try and clear the intersection if they feel there's enough room. Of course, they're probably also blocking the visibility of the person tailgaiting them, who will also go through the intersection as a result, enough room or not. All that turning traffic accounts for 3 of the directions you have to check with a valid walk signal (everything but orthogonal traffic coming from the opposite side of the road) - the 4th comes from people running the tail end of red lights, which happens pretty frequently too. Even ignoring illegally short yellow light timings, people will try to squeeze in. Vroom vroom.
- chrisseaton 8y agoIf you’re allowed to turn right while lights are red for pedestrians that only means one lane can cross your path if you’re a pedestrian - the lane your sidewalk runs alongside.
- MaulingMonkey 8y agoIn this diagram: https://i.imgur.com/0Smz0Nk.png https://i.imgur.com/0Smz0Nk.png Legal right on red is contributing to the behavior of the car driving east and turning south (who hasn't noticed they now have a green light), as well as the the car driving north and turning east (who's LOS is blocked by a truck, SUV, small van with tinted windows, etc. and is pushing that far up so they can see left enough to spot a gap which they can use to turn right on red)
- 8y ago
- stretchwithme 8y agoI wonder how things would go if many streets had pedestrian crossings were in the middle of blocks and the corners where traffic circles. You couldn't do that everywhere because of buses and truck and other long vehicles. Maybe if you could also drive over the center of them. We have a circle like that here.
- culot 8y agoAt some intersections there can be a button that will give you priority and issue a full stop for all traffic, but those aren't too common.
- sjoerdsjoerd 8y agoI am fully convinced that those buttons don’t do anything and are just placebo.
- javagram 8y agoIt completely depends on the city. Some buttons trigger the “walk” sign but don’t actually change the traffic signals for cars. Some buttons are placebo, perhaps with a secondary function of emitting a loud tone to let blind people know the walk signal has turned on. Some buttons trigger the traffic lights to stop. Some buttons turn the traffic light to a 4 way red light. I have encountered all these types of buttons on the east coast of the US in various states.
- MaulingMonkey 8y agoAround here we have a wide variety. Sometimes they do nothing. Sometimes they don't change the main traffic pattern at all, but won't ever display "walk" unless you press them. Sometimes they change the traffic pattern. Sometimes behavior changes at different times of day. Sometimes they're legit broken - at one intersection, a button I used only worked maybe 30% of the time, unless you were holding it down at the exact moment the cycle changed, then it worked 100% of the time.
- culot 8y agoI recently stood at a light for like 15 minutes before I realized a button was available. There was no pedestrian crosswalk scheduled at that light at all. Once pressed traffic in all directions stopped in about 1-2 minutes. It was glorious.
- bsder 8y agoThe big problem is "Right Turn On Red" aka "How Dare A Pedestrian Slow Me Down". We need to get rid of that rule now that the justification for it no longer exists.
- war1025 8y ago> We need to get rid of that rule now that the justification for it no longer exists What changed that I was unaware of? As far as I know, it still makes traffic flow much more efficient in most situations. Also, at least where I live, the walk light wouldn't be on at the same time as someone turning right on red that would be going into my path.
- Buldak 8y ago>Also, at least where I live, the walk light wouldn't be on at the same time as someone turning right on red that would be going into my path. What guarantees this exactly? I'm having a hard time seeing how this is possible.
- war1025 8y agoIf they are turning right, and my walk light is on, then they already have a green light.
- bsder 8y ago> What changed that I was unaware of? As far as I know, it still makes traffic flow much more efficient in most situations. Right turn on red was mostly implemented to avoid having cars idling waiting for a timer-only light to turn. Between modern cars with fast engine stop/start and modern sensor technology which triggers lights when there is no opposing traffic, there are a lot of good reasons to remove that rule again.
- helthanatos 8y agoYou would have to add a right turn arrow for your logic to pan out.
- gregmac 8y agoA common and smart design I've noticed here (Canada), is that at moderately busy pedestrian intersections the walk signal will turn on a couple seconds before the traffic light turns green. This means when people first start walking, all directions have a red light, and then it's also much more obvious to traffic that people are crossing because they're already on the street while the cars are still stopped. I think on some intersections pressing the button will make this delay longer, but it's hard to tell from casual observation. Also, traffic light timings are set by the municipality, so it can vary by city and depending on the age of the intersection. The most dangerous intersections I find are on the multi-lane suburban arterial roads. Pedestrians are less common (than in neighborhoods or downtown) so drivers generally aren't watching for them as much. You really have to be careful with cars turning right on a red - even if there's a walk signal - because they're looking to their left for traffic to see if it's clear for them to go, and not for people coming the right about to walk in front of them.
- chrisseaton 8y ago> the walk signal will turn on a couple seconds before the traffic light turns green But why on earth would you turn the tragic light green while the walk signal is still on? Why not one at a time?
- soperj 8y agoThey're talking about in the same direction.
- chrisseaton 8y agoThat doesn’t make any sense - when a pedestrian wants to cross why not give all traffic a full red light? That’s how every traffic light I’ve ever used outside the US works. In the US I’m not even sure what a walk light guarantees a pedestrian?
- waits 8y agoIt guarantees no cross traffic. Turns are still a threat. I’ve seen the type of light you describe (all pedestrians walk in all directions at once while all cars have a red) in the US but they’re exceedingly rare. In cities there’s always pedestrians and cars waiting in every direction so it would be too slow to be practical.
- obastani 8y agoThey do two things. First, you get right of way (so highest priority). Second, the only cars they do not stop are right turns. As other commenters have mentioned, the point is to improve efficiency, both since cars can turn right once there are no pedestrians, but also since pedestrians can cross for a longer period of time. On the other hand, it can also be annoying for cars, since they often never get a dedicated right turn without pedestrians. Honestly I think stop lights aren't a big danger for pedestrians. Crossing at intersections with stop signs is far, far worse -- drivers have to pay attention to multiple directions of traffic as well as pedestrians.
- Cyclone_ 8y agoWhat sort of road is it? Does it have a shoulder? Believe it or not in Boulder one of the most popular strava segments is on a highway