Poll: Walking through a red light

[Drakmorg]

If there are no cars coming, and therefore no threat to my safety, why shouldn't I just cross the street? Seems kinda pointless to just arbitrarily wait at a crosswalk when you have a clear road to get across just because a light suggests waiting for a bit instead.

 

[Sansha]

I like my body to remain not embedded in the grill of a car, so I wait for green.

Mostly.

 

[PureChaos]

as long as i can make it comfortable across without getting run over i'll go for it. with the ones i have to use if you can be waiting for ages for it to go green so i go as soon as i can

 

[Aprilgold]

So why does it seem to be okay to break the rules when you're on foot?

Because you're not in charge of a tonne of metal going at 30 miles/hour.

But if there's no other cars around, driving through a red light won't hurt anyone either. I know you can miss someone and cause an accident, but that's also true when you're on foot.
So it's okay to potentially cause an accident when you're likely to get more hurt than other people?

A car, a ton of metal, can go over 60 miles per hour, runs on gas, and we humans are made of bones, muscles, and organs, we can not go 60 miles per hour and we don't weigh tons.

If there is NO cars, then I'll go, why? BECAUSE THERE ARE NO CARS GOING! Its not a crime to Jaywalk, but it IS a crime to run a red light, because they EXPECT people to go when its their turn or when there are no cars around.

 

[Chalacachaca]

Screw the lights, since there are no pedestrian lights where I live and cars always have the right of way.

 

[The Diabolical Biz]

Hey OP, if you came to a road with no lights/pedestrian crossing would you be stuck on one side till you found a light and took a major diversion?

That was a joke, but it leads me on to my next point...

Of course I do! I'm a Londoner, I'll cross the road through traffic if I have to. I basically treat all roads like they have no lights, and wait till it's safe to cross (I've never been hit by a car, I almost did once but it wasn't because of light-skipping shenanigans).

 

[Death God]

I do it all the time. Heck, in the big cities, people jaywalk all the time. Even the police do it. And people are always driving through red lights. If I see the light turning yellow though, I do slow down to a stop. I don't trust my car to make it through fast enough.

 

[Smallells]

As a pedestrian? Hell yes, I will walk across that empty road.

Interestingly, I visited Berlin once, and it is completely illegal to walk, run, skip or cartwheel across a road when it's on red regardless of how many cars are on the road (I assume this extends to all of Germany?). I woke up at six, looked out the window, saw a bunch of people waiting for the light to turn green when the entire road was empty. Hilarious. But hey, better to be safer I suppose!

 

[Zykon TheLich]

Yes, of course, crossings are helpful for crossing busy roads but I cross the road where there are no lights and cars in both directions so a clear road is going to be crossed regardless of whether the light is telling the cars to stop, in the UK that is all a crossing is for, it tells the cars to stop and then indicates that it is safe for you to cross, it isn't to control pedestrians.

 

[Sentox6]

And at least I can then look back and say "There's many things I did wrong during my life, but crossing the street wasn't one of them." That's something, right?

No. It's not. It's really, really not.

As someone else pointed out, there's more danger in crossing with a green pedestrian light when traffic is around than jaywalking on an empty street. The 'rules' are no substitute for applying judgment and common sense. It's no different than speed limits. Exceeding the speed limit is not always necessarily dangerous, and adhering to the speed limit does not automatically make you safe.

Far better to have a little cognisance of your situation than to blindly follow a generalised set of rules.

 

[MarsProbe]

Most of the time, yes. If the coast is completely clear and you have a good view of the road in both directions for a good distance, then you'd have to be a bit of a mug if you're perfectly capable of crossing at the red man but chose not to.

Times when I nip across the road and I see people still standing on the pavement a good 20 seconds or so later, stock still and waiting for the non-existent traffic to pass by. And if someething does turn up, well that's what running is for, really.

It all turned out to be good practice for when I visited Rome. It seems that on the busier road, the rules were you either cross the road, or spend a long time standing there waiting for a clear run. Saw a waiter there walk out of a restaurant carrying a large tray of glasses on one shoulder completely obscuring the view to his right and he just walked straight across a busy road without a glance in either direction. That's the way to do it!

 

[Agayek]

You're about to cross the street, but the light is red. You look around and see no cars coming from either direction. Do you wait for the light to turn green, or just walk across?

The reason I ask is that from what I've seen, people don't usually care about the light being red when they're on foot. How often do you see cars driving through a red ligh? Not that often, I hope. Even when there's no other cars around, you're supposed to wait for green. So why does it seem to be okay to break the rules when you're on foot?

I almost always wait for green. The only time I don't is if I'm really in a hurry, like if I'm about to miss a bus and the next one leaves in an hour.

It depends on the road and how pressed for time I am. Generally, I'll avoid walking across on a red light if the street is a heavy-traffic road, like the main thoroughfares in most cities. Outside of that though, I'll usually ignore the lights. It's not really sensible to have to wait when you can clearly tell you'll make it across the street before a car comes into view.

 

[Foxbat Flyer]

I always J-Walk... It doesnt help we dont have walk signs where I live (Apparently 600 people isnt enough to need them)

 

[crudus]

I never press the button, it only slows down the drivers and contributes to pollution. Those cars are just sat there wasting petrol while the light turns green, fuck making people wait and killing the planet while they do it.

Most of the time the driver isn't looking. Sometimes it is "Ok, cars, cars, no cars, punch it, pedestrian, STOP!". They basically start driving without looking in front of them. Sometimes they make a turn at a green light and they don't look where they will be after the turn is done.

Then why is driving through red light any different? If you clearly see no-one's coming, then what's the problem?

Do you really trust people to make judgment calls like that?

 

[Jester_AKA_M]

A New Yorker born and bred, I always considered the traffic lights more of a loose guideline. I took a trip to Nebraska at the beginning of the summer, and overheard a kid who couldn't have been younger than 13 go, "I don't know...jaywalking...couldn't they have us arrested?" and thought it was the most adorable thing my smug metropolitan ass had ever heard.

 

[runnernda]

It looks like I'm asking a "stupid question". That it's somehow obvious that traffic rules don't apply to pedestrians. I don't get it...

It's not breaking the rules when you're on foot, since there are no rules about crossing against the lights as a pedestrian. In most places, I know cyclists are supposed to follow traffic laws (not that they do...), but not pedestrians.

I don't know what the law says in Finland; but in Norway, Sweden and the UK "Red light means stop" is not the rule at all.

In Finland you can get fined for it. I've never seen it happen though, and the fine's pretty small anyway, so I guess the police just don't bother. But it's still not something you should do.

I live in the U.S. I know that jaywalking is technically illegal, and I think you can get fined for it? I think? I think it's become so commonplace now that you only get punished if you're being stupid about it.

Also, I just wiki'ed jaywalking, and apparently it IS illegal to cross against the lights in the U.S. Who knew? It's not going to stop me from doing it, but it's an interesting tidbit.

 

[Llil]

Then why is driving through red light any different? If you clearly see no-one's coming, then what's the problem?

Do you really trust people to make judgment calls like that?

No, I don't. I also don't trust pedestrians to always notice if a car is coming, and that's why we have pedestrian lights.

As someone else pointed out, there's more danger in crossing with a green pedestrian light when traffic is around than jaywalking on an empty street.

But crossing with a green light on an empty street is even safer.

 

[Sentox6]

As someone else pointed out, there's more danger in crossing with a green pedestrian light when traffic is around than jaywalking on an empty street.

But crossing with a green light on an empty street is even safer.

It's not safer, it's just equally safe.

 

[Joanny]

I was in Almere-Stad at a large pedestrian crossing(covering 3 lanes,for cars coming only from the left) I pushed the pedestrian button ;when all cars had passed ;the pedestrian light any minute could turn green and the road was clear and the last black car heading left (still very far from me )was about to turn left ;I started walking (Everybody does it there.) I looked ahead and could have easily passed behind the last car; had the car driven at normal speed, he'd be long gone ;but suddenly the car stopped or reversed ; in front of me ;blocking me the road. It turned out they were policeofficers??? (not in real uniform but casually dressed AND they didn't identify themselves) started intimidating me etc.bullying me from out of their car.I got scared because they just left me standing in the middle of the pedestrian crossing and kept bullying. I listened for a while but then decided to ignore them and go to the refuge; where I told the so called police officer (not in a policecar)that the man by blocking the road endangered my life. But the officer couldn't care less about it ;all he cared for was himself and writing a fine for over ?60 ;for crossing the street at a red light (allthough it turned green when I was half way the crossing);(if he had kept on bullying me and had left me standing there for much longer the pedestrian light would have turned red again and would I be in danger because in the meanwhile cars had arrived and started claxoning at the black car )They probably thus hit the orange/red light themselves.
Conclusion;so in Almere -Stad some people in the force r not there to protect people anymore but there to use people as prey? + squeeze money out of them . So even if you are a harmless innocent walker ;they manage to take your money and laugh about it+ they were acting out to me like they were on a manhunt.
If you need the same officers for serieus problems they are not there (because they are preying on the harmless.) I have never seen anyone get fined for walking through red by the way .
I am all for traffic lights with sensors .

 

[Girl With One Eye]

I do walk across if there's absolutely no cars around, if there's a car coming but slowly I still wait because it really annoys me when I'm driving and some idiot runs out infront of me.