4 ms·

In Germany it's illegal not to stop if a pedestrian is close to the crosswalk.

xen0 5mo ago
And yet I would still stop and wait before walking out. The law will not save me against 1.5 tons of metal hitting me by accident.
WalterBright 5mo ago
I'll still wait for the car to stop before stepping in front of it. This is just common sense.
culopatin 5mo ago
But are pedestrians considerate and make a contract with the driver eye to eye to signal “hey, I see you, i see you see me, thanks for stopping, I will be crossing”. Or they are looking at their phones standing on the wheelchair ramp or chatting with someone, kinda going in, maybe, maybe not, and when it looks like they’ll be crossing the street parallel to yours and you start going they change their minds and cross diagonally in front of you? Because I’m all for pedestrian safety and prioritization. But SF has gone so “safe” that it’s back to unsafe. Runners will join an intersection from behind a tree in front of a car that had stopped and was starting to go without even looking up. People join a crossing looking down or away from the flow of traffic, it’s insane to me. I find that kids cross streets much better than adults here. A kid will stop, look, check if they were seen and then proceed.
- Semaphor 5mo ago
  Somehow that works very well in Germany without it resulting in some kind of chaos. There’s no need to make eye contact. Crosswalks (or Zebras) are the ultimate "pedestrian has all the rights" element.
  - tengwar2 5mo ago
    I've found that in Italy (at least Milan and Turin), not making eye contact is key.
- aziaziazi 5mo ago
  Let’s say person A drive their car through a green light (or any right of way) while person B pass at red with their truck and kills person A. Should we blame A to missed they eye contact with B?
  - culopatin 5mo ago
    This is a false equivalence. Im not talking about blaming a victim. I don’t know who the victim is when someone stopped, looked started driving and out of nowhere a runner with noise cancelling headphones ran in front of them anyway. I’m talking about you want to be safe? Don’t just run into the street without looking. It’s the best optimization for the state of affairs in the streets. People are not perfect, pillars are very big now, blind spots are bigger, cellphones, whatever you want.
    - Semaphor 5mo ago
      I like to assume there aren’t that many deranged murderers around for it to matter. The state of affairs all my life has been that drivers are as careful as they have to around crosswalks.

xen0 5mo ago

And yet I would still stop and wait before walking out. The law will not save me against 1.5 tons of metal hitting me by accident.

WalterBright 5mo ago

I'll still wait for the car to stop before stepping in front of it. This is just common sense.

culopatin 5mo ago

But are pedestrians considerate and make a contract with the driver eye to eye to signal “hey, I see you, i see you see me, thanks for stopping, I will be crossing”. Or they are looking at their phones standing on the wheelchair ramp or chatting with someone, kinda going in, maybe, maybe not, and when it looks like they’ll be crossing the street parallel to yours and you start going they change their minds and cross diagonally in front of you? Because I’m all for pedestrian safety and prioritization. But SF has gone so “safe” that it’s back to unsafe. Runners will join an intersection from behind a tree in front of a car that had stopped and was starting to go without even looking up. People join a crossing looking down or away from the flow of traffic, it’s insane to me. I find that kids cross streets much better than adults here. A kid will stop, look, check if they were seen and then proceed.

Semaphor 5mo ago
Somehow that works very well in Germany without it resulting in some kind of chaos. There’s no need to make eye contact. Crosswalks (or Zebras) are the ultimate "pedestrian has all the rights" element.
- tengwar2 5mo ago
  I've found that in Italy (at least Milan and Turin), not making eye contact is key.
aziaziazi 5mo ago
Let’s say person A drive their car through a green light (or any right of way) while person B pass at red with their truck and kills person A. Should we blame A to missed they eye contact with B?
- culopatin 5mo ago
  This is a false equivalence. Im not talking about blaming a victim. I don’t know who the victim is when someone stopped, looked started driving and out of nowhere a runner with noise cancelling headphones ran in front of them anyway. I’m talking about you want to be safe? Don’t just run into the street without looking. It’s the best optimization for the state of affairs in the streets. People are not perfect, pillars are very big now, blind spots are bigger, cellphones, whatever you want.
  - Semaphor 5mo ago
    I like to assume there aren’t that many deranged murderers around for it to matter. The state of affairs all my life has been that drivers are as careful as they have to around crosswalks.