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Comment by menssen | Hacker News Reader

Anecdotally (I'm posting this to see if I'm the only one who's noticed), there's something culturally (or legally) unique about jaywalking in California.

The ambiguity of countdown timers should have been a problem in every city/state that put them in. But I can't imagine reading this article about anywhere else because everywhere else, everybody jaywalks all the time and the laws are rarely enforced.

But relatively nobody jaywalks in CA. A few years ago I was in downtown LA very early in the morning, standing on a street corner with five or so other people who were all patiently waiting for a green light to cross a completely empty street. No cars in sight. For someone from east of the Rockies, it's actually kind of surreal.

Why is jaywalking such a big deal in CA?

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I definitely don't think it's just you. Once, when I lived in the valley, I was at a restaurant on one side of the street and wanted to go to a shop across the street, but it was the middle of the block and I didn't feel like walking to the cross-walk. The road was 3 lanes in either direction, but there was a wide grassy median, so I did what I've always done growing up in NYC: I crossed the near 3 lanes and waited on the median for the traffic in the other direction to clear.

Well, apparently the sight of a pedestrian in the median was unexpected enough that every driver in the far 3 lanes slammed on their brakes immediately, stopping traffic right in the middle of the block. It was as if they expected that I was just aimlessly wandering across the road and would step out into oncoming traffic if they didn't stop.

Of course, I think at least part of the problem is that pedestrians, in general, are so rare in CA. I used to live ~1 mile from work and would walk in regularly, whereas co-workers who lived half that distance would always drive (and don't get me started about the difficulty walking after 9 pm when every lawn sprinkler in the valley would unleash a deluge across the sidewalks).

> and don't get me started about the difficulty walking after 9 pm when every lawn sprinkler in the valley would unleash a deluge across the sidewalks

This problem is not unique to California. I felt the same during my stay in Overland Park, Kansas (a small suburb close to Kansas City, Missouri).

What was also noteworthy to me was how downtown kcmo was different when it snowed. They usually (always?) cleaned the sidewalks in downtown kcmo. However, Overland Park sidewalks were grossly neglected with snow from the streets often piled on the sidewalk with no apparent concern for pedestrians.

Even worse, you get to street that has no sidewalk at all, you cross and the other side has no sidewalk either. Literally no sidewalk on either side of the street!

Welcome to 90%+ of the US.

I live in a fairly rural city and drive a stretch of road every morning with no sidewalk and lots of walkers in the grass. And the speed limit is 65. I'm constantly worried some idiot will wander onto the road.

It's truly amazing how powerfully people can be conditioned by the government and law.

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