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Comment by userabchn | Hacker News Reader

It irritates me when people press the crosswalk button on quiet roads (where most of the time there is nothing coming, so you can just cross) before they have even looked to see if anything is coming. Most of the time they then cross immediately and the traffic light will go red some time after they have already crossed, holding up both cars and pedestrians coming behind (who might get there shortly before the traffic light goes green again, so have to wait for that and then wait for the accumulated traffic to clear before they can cross). There is a walking route near me that crosses a lot of roads and I not infrequently get caught behind someone doing this so I get stuck at every crossing.

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Imagine how irritating it is for every pedestrian to have to wait for every light to change, for their momentary privilege to walk across a 5ft-wide space that often has cars poking their hoods into it.

Yes, everyone wishes they could move unimpeded by anybody else. But, we live in a society with many different kinds of users so we accept a bit of inconvenience in the pursuit of safety.

It is the opinion of many that we have over-optimized our public spaces to nearly the sole benefit of private vehicular traffic. Apologies for the initial sarcastic reply.

> It irritates me when people press the crosswalk button on quiet roads (where most of the time there is nothing coming, so you can just cross) before they have even looked to see if anything is coming.

Since you're comfortable asking pedestrians to jaywalk across the street if it looks clear, maybe you should also get comfortable with simply running the red lights on these quiet roads, since nothing is coming. At least in your case, you have a giant machine with airbags to protect you if you make a mistake.

> Since you're comfortable asking pedestrians to jaywalk across the street if it looks clear,

According to the rest of his comment, most of them are jaywalking:

> Most of the time they then cross immediately and the traffic light will go red some time after they have already crossed

I.e., they come to the intersection, hit the crosswalk button, and then jaywalk across instead of waiting for the signal to change. The signal then actually changes after they are across.

> maybe you should also get comfortable with simply running the red lights on these quiet roads, since nothing is coming. At least in your case, you have a giant machine with airbags to protect you if you make a mistake.

I do not have a car. It is while walking that I am affected by the behaviour.

Not sure if it's everywhere - but where I am it is actually illegal to cross when it says don't cross and you can get a ticket for it. (not saying it's actually enforced).

That is true in most places I have ever been.

Oh those are widespread. In my experience, even where those laws don't exist, they are believed to exist by the brainwashed, car-obsessed population.

Jay walking laws are slowly being walked back in some places.

The history of such laws are interesting, by the way.

That said, most of the time and in most places I've been, the de facto reality is that it's essentially lawless. Neither pedestrians nor drivers are being policed effectively and they all kind of do whatever.

I still find the concept of jaywalking absurd. It doesn't exist in the UK and I first heard about it from an American friend at Uni who was shocked I would "jaywalk" in front of a police officer. I genuinely thought she was winding me up.

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