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When I was in Japan in 2009, every pedestrian in the cities waited patiently at each crossing until the light turned green, even if there were no cars around at
by Nition 7y ago
When I was in Japan in 2009, every pedestrian in the cities waited patiently at each crossing until the light turned green, even if there were no cars around at all.
However, when the streets were mostly empty, I saw one Japanese man come to an empty crossing, glance around, and cross on red.
Can't generalize much off a single example, but it did make me think peer pressure is probably a factor.
- boomboomsubban 7y agoIn America, the primary "road safety" I was taught as a kid was "look both ways before crossing the road." I think the Japanese priority is based more on obeying traffic lites, though this is just conjecture from media and my experience. This said, when people are around there are more likely to be sudden cars as well. It's easier to justify jaywalking at midnight than noon.
- ghaff 7y agoAdhering to crossing lights is a very cultural thing. There was a thread that came up about this a week or two ago. Even within the US, perhaps especially within large northeastern cities like Boston and New York, people will cross if there's no traffic (or even if a driver has hesitated for a moment). Whereas on the West Coast people mostly obey the lights.
- asdff 7y agoIt depends on the situation with traffic and enforcement. At my college town the police were obsessive with writing jay walking tickets. Even if no one is around at all. They really took pride in fining broke college kids $300 for crossing the road. In LA, there is no jaywalking enforcement, or any petty crime enforcement for that matter. The LAPD is a disproportionately tiny police force that has far bigger fish to fry. People don't jaywalk though because more pedestrians die from drivers here than any other city in the nation.
- magduf 7y ago>At my college town the police were obsessive with writing jay walking tickets. Even if no one is around at all. They really took pride in fining broke college kids $300 for crossing the road. And police in America wonder why people hate them so much.
- asdff 7y agoIt's sad, because sometimes you read articles about a small town's main revenue source being a speed trap. Municipal governments have not gotten the historic funding they've enjoyed from state and federal government over years of being routinely slashed by a political party that enjoys slashing routinely when in power. So you end up with broke college kids using their student loan money to ultimately pay for trash pickup or other critical city services that were previously paid for by taxation and higher levels of government.
- boomboomsubban 7y agoThere's probably a historical influence here to. Most of Western US cities were designed after the introduction of the car, while Eastern cities were designed for carts and walking. That would also help explain why Japan follows them, and Europe is to massive to generalize.