Hossenfeffer

And you have fun inventing your strawmen! Such fun.

It's a strawman and you know it. I've said several times that right of way is not a replacement for due care and attention. e.g. "And - duh! - of course we’re careful crossing the street.", or "Again, we just look both ways and make sure any driver heading in your direction has made eye contact so you know they’ve seen you."

You're the one who invented this "the law will protect me so I can jump into traffic blindfold" strawman, not me.

So your state doesn't recognise jay-walking as a crime? Cool.

I’ve never understood you people who care more for legal culpability than your own safety.

You're arguing with a straw man.

Am I the only one reading this thread or something?

I reckon it's just the two of us at this point.

What you seem to be saying in this comment is that, despite crushingly authoritarian laws prohibiting jaywalking, people in your state are just arseholes who deliberately try to get hit by a car? Or, maybe you're saying that people in countries with jay-walking laws are more likely to be suicidal, because this is behavior you've seen in person?

I don't quite understand what your point is any more. I've never been hit by a car. No-one I know has ever been hit by a car (except one friend who bounced off the hood of a Ferrari but - by his own admission - that was entirely his own fault).

The fact that pedestrians have right of way here seems to mean drivers (I'm a driver too) are more inclined to anticipate hazards - including pedestrians - than in a country where pedestrians have no freedom. We do hazard awareness testing as part of our driver licensing programme. And - duh! - of course we're careful crossing the street.

But you still seem to be utterly fixated on the 'determined at fault' thing. Who is at fault is irrelevant when people aren't being mowed down by Bubba Joe in his Mustang racing between the lights.

Well if you think people who live in countries with no jay-walking laws 'lollygag in the street or cross irresponsibly' or '[jump] in front of 2,000+ lbs hunk of mostly plastic', I don't know what to tell you. I guess we just live in countries with more personal freedom and a greater expectation of personal responsibility.

Again, we just look both ways and make sure any driver heading in your direction has made eye contact so you know they’ve seen you. My 10-year old walks to school on his own and crosses a road twice. I have 0% expectation that he'll be hit by a car.

It's bizarre to me that you fixate on what happens when you're dead.

I'm more interested in the impact of the cultural component of drivers knowing that pedestrians can cross anywhere. I feel like that makes a huge difference. In countries where jaywalking laws exist, I imagine it's dangerous to cross the road anywhere other than a pedestrian crossing. In countries where car companies never managed to get the government go along with victim-blaming pedestrians and so never enacted jay-walking laws I assume it's much safer.

I'm in my late 50s, and have never worried about crossing urban roads, never come close to being mowed down by a car (a bicycle a couple of times, but never a car). I've lived everywhere from tiny villages to one of the biggest, angriest cities in the world, and it's simply never been an issue.

You just look both ways and make sure any driver heading in your direction has made eye contact so you know they've seen you. Oftentimes they'll wave you across.

In most residential areas there are no designated crossings.

And drivers here have an expectation that pedestrians may try and cross the road at any moment so perhaps they’re all more aware.

I’m not sure how finances fit into this cultural difference.

“Fuck all y’all. One at a time or all together, cunts, it’s all the same to me. I’m gonna fuck up your whole shit!” - M. Fucking Gandhi, bitches!

-Mr Bean

If you do have to defend yourself, indiscriminate use of a grenade launcher sends a powerful message.

In my country pedestrians always have right of way except on motorways.

At least not with your dick out.