I’m completely aware of traffic coming from both ways with out having to stop and wait to see that they are coming to a stop before proceeding into the crosswalk. I give myself a buffer, but I walk confident they’ll come to a stop while remaining vigilant. There’s a difference between that and sitting on the sidewalk…

I was unavoidably t-boned in Seattle one time. They don’t have stop signs in a lot of neighborhoods. Wasn’t my fault but it fucked me up good for a few years. Driving, which is something I love more than just about anything, turned joyless due to my anxieties of going through intersections. I’ve also been a passenger…

I have no problem with automated vehicle testing in theory.

You must be a horrible driver if you think you would have hit this person crossing the road when you’re only going 38.

And you can continue to live life scared, manufacturing a false sense of security. You put your life in people’s hands every day. One sharp turn of the wheel and practically anyone could end you on the interstate, but they don’t and the only way to make something like an interstate work is with a basic level of trust.

And to answer your question directly, yes absolutely I start walking assuming traffic will stop. Every time, and not just in the US either. I use crosswalks how they were intended to be used in major cities and small ones all over the world. Not been hit a single time, and I’m confident I won’t be.

Oh my god, yes, that’s exactly how it’s supposed to work. Drivers give right of way to pedestrians IN crosswalks, not sitting on the sidewalk. If you don’t start walking the driver is actually not at all obligated by the law to come to a stop (in the vast majority of states at least, I wouldn’t be surprised if there…

Your just as likely to get hit making someone come to a stop before you’re willing to go, out of sheer rage that you’re too scared to do your part.

What the law is and what cops do in roadside stops have nothing to do with one another. However, they can legally make you hold your finger to open a phone, safe, etc and not get in trouble, but can’t take a combination from your mind you don’t want to give, they’d maybe get a talking to if they attempt that.

Scanning isn’t the same as directly looking at something. A pedestrian can be aware of a car in their peripheral vision and not have to look right at it to know its coming. If I’m legally crossing the street in a crosswalk I know cars are coming but I’m not going to stop and wait for some sort of confirmation I can…

When you go through intersections to you look at everycar stopped and coming to a stop in other lanes? Why should a pedestrian have to?

A cop can legally compel you to open something with a finger print scanner. If it were a combination lock on the other hand you’d have some time to have your fixer go to the impound lot and retrieve the drug before the techs get to it.

I just mean to say be in or out of a crosswalk doesn’t really enter consideration. Most US cities don’t have fully thought out crosswalks. Basic walking most places requires a lot of what could be considered jaywalking.

Yeah, cause pedestrians are only ever in crosswalks, this incident shouldn’t matter going forward.

I think our rednecks would give any other Florida rednecks a run for their money. All depends on the day I suppose.

Oh no, I’ve run afoul of DirkaDirk’s internet commenting sensibilities. What will I do!!!

Just a wee bit north in Winter Haven. Yeah Avon Park and really most of rural Florida is crazy. We’re the 4th largest state by area, but what people don’t realize is that it’s virtually all habitable. No mountains, no frozen tundra, no desert. So people, for hundreds of years now, have managed to find nooks and…

I love the people who think like this, like we’re some different species.

I live a bit north of Sebring and I can confirm that when it comes to mudding, Central Florida has got to be the capital. It could come from the fact that the sugar sand around here creates an actual utility for a jacked up truck with Super Swampers on it.