4 ms·
> If a driver sees me walking in the crosswalk and notices that our paths will intersect, he speeds up. Everyone does it and everyone accepts the behavior It's
by feoren 3y ago
> If a driver sees me walking in the crosswalk and notices that our paths will intersect, he speeds up. Everyone does it and everyone accepts the behavior
It's a weird experience reading this about something I've never done nor really observed very often. People speed up when they see a pedestrian in a crosswalk? I see people stopping for pedestrians all the time. Sometimes cars will stop for me when I wish they wouldn't: just keep going, you were fine, I'm still like 5 seconds away from your path.
> The car is there “by default” and the pedestrian must ask permission to enter their realm
That's such a weirdly negative way of looking at the world. Dozens to hundreds of cars pass per minute and fewer than one pedestrian does (on average), so the pedestrian notifies the intersection that they're there. You'd rather every single light cycle assume pedestrians are crossing, even when 95% of the time they're not? You'd like to waste every driver's time to make some point about society?
There are plenty of intersections where a very minor road crosses a main road. When cars come to the intersection on the minor road, they "hit the button" by driving over the sensor, and the intersection knows they're there. Are they the poor pathetic outsiders "asking for permission" to "enter the realm" of the major street? I guess you could look at it that way if you wanted to be angry all the time. It's just simple optimization to make as many people as happy as possible. Just hit the damn walk button; it's fine.
- dotnet00 3y agoAgreed, I've literally never seen anyone speed up to try to get through before I cross. Hell, often times at stop signs if I notice a car or two coming, I try to stand away from the sign to let them go before crossing, and yet still they often stop and gesture for me to cross first.
- dublinben 3y agoHow often are you walking around your city? I live in one of the most walkable cities in the US, and this is a weekly occurrence for me.
- dotnet00 3y agoI haven't gotten around to learning to drive yet (didn't think I could afford it on a PhD stipend, but turns out I can, so working on it now), so I'm always on foot and always dealing with the half-baked public transport.
- iambateman 3y agoIt’s not that _everyone_ always speeds up…I was exaggerating to communicate what it feels like. Yes, many drivers try to be courteous. But many others are drag racing at 75 mph on a 35 mph road while I try to walk across with my child in the middle of the afternoon - an anecdote which is not exaggerated at all.
- pugworthy 3y agoDon't exaggerate a stat like that. Speak rationally and use information, not hyperbole as there is no /h tag to show how you are making exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.
- erhaetherth 3y agoI sometimes pretend like I'm going somewhere else if I want them to go first.
- theonething 3y agoMe too. It's like, dude, just go. If you let me go first, then I have to hurry and awkwardly walk right in front of you while you're waiting.
- iambateman 3y agoI’m sure you don’t see it often but I see “speed up to pass pedestrian” at least weekly where I live. And I am angry at the fact that pedestrian deaths were up 77% from 2020 to 2021 - a year in which 7000+ drivers unintentionally smashed their cars into people walking and ended their lives. I think there’s room for negativity on this point. (That said, I’m certainly not angry at you…just the system.) But I don’t want to waste all of societies time waiting at pointless walk stoppages…that would be absurd and it wasn’t my point. I believe that walk buttons are a symptom of a problem - specifically that there are lots of places which try to mix pedestrians and cars and end up being worse for both. In my mind, we need more roads specifically dedicated to _only_ cars which offer no possibility of encountering a pedestrian at all. Interstates have no crossing buttons. And at the same time, we need more spaces which are designed to let cars pass slowly through them, where people tend to walk, bike, scooter, and crawl. These spaces need no crossing buttons either. We can do so much better as a culture.
- erhaetherth 3y agoI don't see the "speed up" problem but I get the "I have no idea if you intend to stop, or turn directly into me". These people drive with speed right up the stop sign, don't turn their blinkers on, and then with 40% probability, turn anyway. So whenever I get to that intersection, if I see a car approaching there, even if they don't have their blinker on to indicate they might want to turn where I want to walk, I wait to make sure they come to a complete stop before I enter the intersection. Sometimes the buggers will just start turning slowly into the intersection as I'm still walking. It's extra great when they start blocking cars going the other way.