This has always amazed me about Boston. The image burned in my mind from my one visit there years ago was of a very elderly woman with a hunched back simply cro

This has always amazed me about Boston. The image burned in my mind from my one visit there years ago was of a very elderly woman with a hunched back simply crossing the street, as you say almost "at random", and without acknowledging the "existence of motor vehicles". There was a wall of traffic incoming from a fresh green light, but she aimed at a store across the street and just started walking diagonally towards it, not looking either way, and without even a pause for consideration. The traffic simply stopped and waited as she slowly crossed; no-one honked. In Manhattan I have a different memory, of masses of people stubbornly crossing against the red, right at the crosswalk, while a taxi slowly tried pushing its way into the sea of pedestrians. But I don't blame them because in NYC every. single. god. damn. intersection has a traffic light. I guess they thought Stop signs weren't good enough. Or even just right of way.