Hacker News Reader

> 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.

I’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.

I 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.

Agreed, 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.

I sometimes pretend like I'm going somewhere else if I want them to go first.

Me 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.

How 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.

I 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.

It’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.

Don'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.

Mind sharing where you're located?

Shortly after moving to Mountain View I was walking home from work and distracted thinking about a technical problem, I managed to walk right in front of a car that had the green. They stopped and apologized to me! (I assume they were also somewhat distracted and thought they were at fault...) Very different experience from the east coast.

I don't recall anyone in norcal speeding up towards pedestrians. And on bikes at unprotected crossings and in merging cars I've experienced the opposite problem where everyone slows down, spacing out traffic to optimally make it so you don't get a break long enough to allow crossing.

I’m in Columbia, SC. The truth is that some of the most dangerous places I walk are usually dominated by poor pedestrians who often don’t follow traffic laws.

I think that has contributed to an especially bad micro-culture around a few blocks where people just get used to weaving their car in between rather annoying pedestrians.

I’ll never forget one day when I was in Sweden trying to cross a road. A driver stopped for me to cross and I was so surprised it actually changed what I expect of myself when near pedestrians.

Have you visited other places in North America, or are you assuming everywhere is like Columbia?

That's really weird to attribute it to North America. I find the norms are different pretty much everywhere I've been. East Coast, Midwest, West Coast, city vs suburb.

In some places the pedestrians ALWAYS have the right of way (cars going 40-50 mph will stop for pedestrian crossing). In other places, cars slowly force their way into a full crosswalk.

Yes, it's cultural. But it's different everywhere in the US.

> If a driver sees me walking in the crosswalk and notices that our paths will intersect, he speeds up.

I've lived in the US all my life and I don't recall seeing this even once.

On the other hand, the thing I experience that infuriates me is when the walk sign comes on so I start to step off the curb to cross and a car making a right turn at my corner of the intersection doesn't even pretend to check for pedestrians and comes barreling through the corner because they were trying to beat the red light.

Most of the time they see me at the last second and stop before running me over. I make a point of quickly stepping back on to curb and giving them a death stare before I continue.

Sometimes they don't see me and barrel through the corner. If I don't step back, I would get run over. Infuriating.