Never in my LIFE have I EVER seen a car stop for one of these, unless a cop was nearby, there was a crossing guard, or the person crossing was a mom pushing a baby stroller. What's the point of even painting these when crossing the road at these points is just as dangerous as jaywalking? At least when you're jaywalking you know you're breaking the law and you know that the cars have the right of way but it really really makes me irate when cars don't slow down for you in crosswalks.
Here's an example that happened earlier today: I was crossing my bike at a 6-lane boulevard with a 1 foot median at an orange crosswalk. The nearest lights were almost half a mile away in either direction. There's almost no traffic coming on my side except for two cars so I let those pass, and start walking the bike across. I go into the first lane on the other side when I see a whole bunch of traffic coming. They're about 500 feet away and I'm in the middle of the damn road now and I'm crossing legally so I keep going. The traffic keeps coming with no sign of slowing down. My heart rate starts rising. I'm in the second lane now. There's a car back in the first lane about 200 feet away, and a van in the lane in front of me about 200 feet away, and the car in MY lane is about 100 feet away and closing with no signs of slowing down. I'm probably going to get hit by that car so I start running and jump my bike over the curb, and the van in the third lane zooms by at 45mph two seconds later. Two seconds. If I was two seconds slower there could have been an accident and I would have been the loser in that accident. Insurance is no fault here, so compensation would have sucked.
Another example: There's another orange crosswalk near my college and once or twice during the semester I've gotten caught in the MIDDLE with cars zooming by on each side and adrenaline throbbing through my veins. Everytime that happens it takes at least 15 minutes to totally shake off the feeling.
Please tell me, why the hell do cities bother painting these crosswalks when they're obviously USELESS? Why not make it a damn *traffic light* instead!! A light that's green all the time except when someone who wants to cross presses a button, then it *instantly* turns yellow, then red and stays red for 30 seconds. I'm sure this is a problem elsewhere too, not just here, even though a recent newspaper article mentioned that in no other cities are crosswalks treated this badly.
Generally, I think our drivers are decent, usually signalling, yielding at intersections etc, I don't think the proportions of bad drivers is higher here than elsewhere, heck we don't have right turns on red which makes intersections a whole lot safer. There's just something about crosswalks though, that makes drivers think that they don't have to slow down and that the pedestrian there is just "going to get out of the way", and if he doesn't well too bad!! I hope I never become such a dick to people like that when I get my car.
Here's an example that happened earlier today: I was crossing my bike at a 6-lane boulevard with a 1 foot median at an orange crosswalk. The nearest lights were almost half a mile away in either direction. There's almost no traffic coming on my side except for two cars so I let those pass, and start walking the bike across. I go into the first lane on the other side when I see a whole bunch of traffic coming. They're about 500 feet away and I'm in the middle of the damn road now and I'm crossing legally so I keep going. The traffic keeps coming with no sign of slowing down. My heart rate starts rising. I'm in the second lane now. There's a car back in the first lane about 200 feet away, and a van in the lane in front of me about 200 feet away, and the car in MY lane is about 100 feet away and closing with no signs of slowing down. I'm probably going to get hit by that car so I start running and jump my bike over the curb, and the van in the third lane zooms by at 45mph two seconds later. Two seconds. If I was two seconds slower there could have been an accident and I would have been the loser in that accident. Insurance is no fault here, so compensation would have sucked.
Another example: There's another orange crosswalk near my college and once or twice during the semester I've gotten caught in the MIDDLE with cars zooming by on each side and adrenaline throbbing through my veins. Everytime that happens it takes at least 15 minutes to totally shake off the feeling.
Please tell me, why the hell do cities bother painting these crosswalks when they're obviously USELESS? Why not make it a damn *traffic light* instead!! A light that's green all the time except when someone who wants to cross presses a button, then it *instantly* turns yellow, then red and stays red for 30 seconds. I'm sure this is a problem elsewhere too, not just here, even though a recent newspaper article mentioned that in no other cities are crosswalks treated this badly.
Generally, I think our drivers are decent, usually signalling, yielding at intersections etc, I don't think the proportions of bad drivers is higher here than elsewhere, heck we don't have right turns on red which makes intersections a whole lot safer. There's just something about crosswalks though, that makes drivers think that they don't have to slow down and that the pedestrian there is just "going to get out of the way", and if he doesn't well too bad!! I hope I never become such a dick to people like that when I get my car.
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