What Was She Thinking?
Sixty-some years ago two post-war, baby-boom parents began teaching their son about looking both ways before crossing a road, and then proceeding only if it was safe. Since they did not live in a city...
Forum Discussion
rollexx wrote:
With all due respect I think you are mistaken. As others have said, the law is as old as the auto.
You suggest in your post that the law is "upside down". That is just plan wrong.
That's not to say pedestrians don't have to use common sense when crossing the street.
In this case the pedestrian perhaps didn't. I don't know I wasn't there.
OP here.
I think you're missing the point.
Of course pedestrians have the right of way. That's a no brainer. Who would argue otherwise?
But the situation here in NY is that there are now signs all over the place on crosswalks informing everyone that traffic must yield to pedestrians. That has led to pedestrians adopting the attitude that they can just step out into the crosswalk and cars MUST IMMEDIATELY STOP for them. Never mind that the traffic was humming along smoothly before they decided to step out into it. Never mind that a moving vehicle requires x amount of feet to stop from the moment the driver applies the brakes. The attitude is that if I, as a pedestrian, step foot in a crosswalk, all traffic will immediately come to a halt.
In this case, the pedestrian was NOT in the crosswalk as I was driving toward it, and my momentum was great enough that I felt it would be unsafe to try to stop BEFORE she entered the crosswalk. If she had hesitated even a second before entering the crosswalk I would have been well beyond it. But no. She looked me in the eye, stepped into the crosswalk right in front of me, and I had to come to a screeching halt to keep from flattening her.
-Speak
