I do a lot of city driving in my job and it has taught me that awareness is not a priority with pedestrians. The number of idiots that will cross the street without looking at possible incoming danger is just amazing. And I am not talking about crossing in middle of street but in the corners over the designated pedestrian crossing during an indicated break.
So, what’s the problem? People assume just because they have a sign like above, all incoming traffic will stop, and they will be safe to cross the street without need to ascertain there is no danger incoming. They don’t look at the cars and in way too many cases, they don’t even bother to unglue their faces from the phone. They expect drivers to allow them to pass unhurt.
They place their safety in the hands of others. Even though they have heard or read about pedestrians being hit by careless drivers, they continue to be careless.
Do you want to be if this expectation only happens while crossing the street? No, more than likely they will keep expecting that nothing bad ever happens to them in all aspects of life, that other people will behave nicely and legally all the time.
And that is why they become victims.
I have addressed this same subject with several people over the years. When the walking signal displays, I pause, evaluate and decide if I should participate, while the people I’m with enter the street without even so much as a thought that something might occur contrary to the norm.
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The answer I often hear amounts to this type of thought, “I’d rather trust the goodness of others than to be paranoid, always expecting the worst”. And my response is, “So why do people make mistakes, is it for a million different reasons, and why do you make mistakes?”
idiots have been programmed to expect others to look out for them. they are not responsible for thier safety, YOU are. theres a bunch of these liberal idiots around here… one bunch moved up here from connecticut and put out signs along the road- caution kids at play… they are going to find a sign in thier drive that says- around here we teach children not to play in the F’in road! you can’t fix stupid.. I had a buddy(combat vet) tell me “Im not going to walk around paranoid “… Its not paranoid to be aware of your surroundings..
“normal is a cycle on a washing machine “..
I’ve seen too many idiots drive the wrong way on a one way street to trust others. Yeah, I check, even when I have the green. Both ways.
When it comes to safety, it is not “trust but verify” it is just “Verify.”
I had a similar reaction watching school kids run across the street after exiting a school bus, without ever pausing to look. Yes, drivers are supposed to stop for the flashing red lights, but they don’t always. And teaching kids “look before you go” as soon as possible is a wise move.
It occurs to me green lights should be viewed the same way as safeties.
Situational awareness is rare in the sheeple these days.
Pedestrians and bicyclists believe that just because a group of morons somewhere passed some laws that gave them “right of way” they are no longer bound by the laws of physics. Too stupid that it doesn’t matter what the “law” says….if they get hit by a car they lose…period. We see the same insanity from the left regarding lots of things. They actually believe that because they have declared that more than two genders exist magically their insanity now becomes reality. And they act on that insanity. We aren’t going to make it…We have committed societal suicide.
When I got a ticket in LA for failing to yield to a jaywalker (who was in the crosswalk, but behind the car in the next lane so I couldn’t see him), some local wag reminded me that “In CA, jaywalkers have the right of way — even dead ones”.