Why old people do not follow rules on cross walks
Posted by Chyort_pobyeri@reddit | driving | View on Reddit | 29 comments
I am aware that younger drivers speed more. But every time someone tries to run me over and stop only when I am directly in front of their car if it is fully my right of the way it is a middle aged or elderly person. Did any driving rules changed in last 20-30 years that could cause that? I live in California btw
OGtacotaster@reddit
Um theres a rule here! If the driver is not looking at you, they don’t see you. 90% of drivers drive with like 100 ft long tunnel vision.
Medical-Effective-30@reddit
That's not a rule. That's a survival heuristic.
OGtacotaster@reddit
Um, trust me..it’s a rule to smart people..lol
OGtacotaster@reddit
One morning not to long ago I was driving down a street and an old man that was trying to run attempted to sneak mis body right in front of my moving car while also jumping into the sidewalk. I saw him coming so I laugh at him and scolded him dumbass. I firmly believe he wanted me to KILL HIM, he want to get run over the crosswalk… this is one reason I will never drive a LUXURY CAR. TONS OF AMERICANS are scamming out there THESE ROADS
ohmyback1@reddit
There is information missing here. Are you in a crosswalk?, are you crossing with a walk sign? or against a don't walk sign,? are you crossing mid street and not checking for traffic clearance? We need details. No you can't just walk out in the street and expect everyone to stop for you. This works in a large group setting, not in a single person setting.
Chyort_pobyeri@reddit (OP)
Crosswalk with a traffic light, for some reason as I go from SF to Daly city people stop paying attention to traffic lights at all. Almost every time I am trying to cross a road there someone goes through the road on a full speed
ohmyback1@reddit
Yeah, we have a crosswalk near us (next to a fire station no less) that I don't bother with, unless I feel like taking my life in my hands. It's a left only and nobody pays attention to pedestrians. I have actually carried a small bat to hit cars.
Z_Clipped@reddit
It's hard to tell exactly what you're talking about because your post is vague and hyperbolic, but this may be relevant:
The law says drivers are required to yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk if there are no counter-indicating control devices. This does not mean drivers are required to come to a stop whenever they see someone on the sidewalk in the general vicinity of a crosswalk.
Drivers may be perfectly willing to stop for you, but they cannot read your mind or determine your intentions. There are numerous reasons, especially in urban areas with heavy foot traffic, for people to stand on corners or near crosswalks with no intention of crossing (they might be waiting for a bus or trying to hail a cab for example.)
If you want to take the right of way at a crosswalk, you need to actually start crossing the street.
Chyort_pobyeri@reddit (OP)
In California there is a traffic light on almost every crosswalk but a lot of drivers go on full speed on a crosswalk where they shoul yeald.
No_Juggernau7@reddit
Idk man, but where I live unless I make hatwful eye contact while I March into the (FUCKING CROSSWALK in the) road, people won’t stop. I need to communicate to them, that it’s a crosswalk and they’ll be scraping my guts off and out of their car if they don’t stop, for them to get the message. No, it’s not just old people.
Bennghazi@reddit
It's because old people get ten points if they can hit you in a crosswalk. Young people, however get 20 points if they hit you in a cross walk.
SolidDoctor@reddit
Don't ever assume the driver sees you and is going to stop. Who was right or wrong in that instant won't fix your brain and bone trauma.
Make eye contact, pay attention to what the drivers that could maim or kill you are doing and make sure they acknowledge your existence.
Jealous-Associate-41@reddit
Right of way isn't particularly relevant when you end up under a moving vehicle. This is also true for semi vs. sedan and sedan vs motorcycle.
Z_Clipped@reddit
I'd say it's pretty relevant if you end up with your paychecks garnished to pay someone else's medical bills for the rest of your life because you didn't understand it.
SolidDoctor@reddit
There are victims on both sides when someone presumes right of way instead of establishing it.
Fearless-Note9409@reddit
I guess the for the same reasons as young people
userhwon@reddit
And middle-aged ones. And whatever is between young and middle-aged. Because we don't have a word for that. Weirdly.
userhwon@reddit
Stopping at the stop line and crosswalk are still the law.
But, California, you say? That law has never been observed there.
ohmyback1@reddit
Here's another thing. Some pedestrians aren't paying attention, phones, books whatever. Then there are distracted drivers, phones, kids, lovers whatever. Put those two together. It spells disaster.
Jazzlike-Basket-6388@reddit
I'm not old, but you might think I am. I don't intention blast thru crosswalks, but I'll occasionally miss one.
When I learned to drive, I feel like there were hardly any crosswalks in my area. Now there are dozens of crosswalks in places that don't make any sense. Speed limit will be 45 and there will be no housing or businesses in the immediate area. And the city just plopped down a cross walk that wasn't there for my first 20 years of driving. And about 99.9% no one is using it. That .1% of the time catches me off guard.
Z_Clipped@reddit
Then, like a frightening number of other drivers out there, you're probably confused about what a "crosswalk" is from a legal perspective.
It's not "an area on the street with lines painted on it". A crosswalk technically exists (whether marked or not) any time a pedestrian walkway (like a sidewalk) exists on both sides of the road. That's what you should be looking for as a driver, because a person walking across the intersection in front of you who doesn't specifically have a red light or "don't walk" sign telling them not to go has 100% of the right of way in most municipalities, and if you hit them and tell the judge it's not your fault because there were no zebra lines painted on the street, you're going to be in deep shit.
So long story short, you're probably "blasting through" a lot more crosswalks than you think.
Jazzlike-Basket-6388@reddit
I don't know if you are being pedantic or what, but pedestrians have to yield to vehicles in unmarked crosswalks. Plus in my area, pretty much anything that isn't a marked crosswalk is marked no pedestrian crossing.
Z_Clipped@reddit
I don't know where you live, but in more than half of US states, this is absolutely not the case.
In 19 states, drivers are required to yield to pedestrians anywhere in the roadway no matter what, and in 7 more, controlled and uncontrolled crosswalks at intersections have the same yielding requirements (i..e. vehicles always yield to peds). There are at least three other states that have somewhat muddier yielding requirements that only cover part of the roadway, but in all of them, you're required to yield to any pedestrian crossing the specific lane you're driving in.
Common law (which would apply in any state that doesn't have a specific law about crosswalks) puts pedestrian right of way at least equivalent to vehicles, so pedestrians pretty much never yield to cars, unless there's a control device that requires them to, or if they are not permitted on the roadway at all.
whereverYouGoThereUR@reddit
Sometimes the problem is that the person trying to cross isn't paying attention, looking the other way, looking at their phone, looking at their dog. In these cases, I'm probably not going to stop since I don't know that you are really trying to cross the road. Make eye contact, start towards the road and most people will then see you as an active crosser and will stop.
Z_Clipped@reddit
To further clarify, there's technically no such thing as "trying to cross the street". A pedestrian is either in the crosswalk crossing the street, in which case traffic is required to yield to them, or they are on the sidewalk not crossing, in which case traffic is not required to stop (and shouldn't play guessing games and stop randomly, for the reasons you mentioned).
Ready-Invite-1966@reddit
Sure. And the person in the 2 ton metal shell SHOULD yield that right to you....
No. But I will say, 20 years ago as kids we were taught to look both ways and only proceed when safe... We were taught that cars will fucking hit us.
There was a more common attitude of "fuck around and find out" than "I can cross because it is legal to do so". Pedestrians looked out for themselves and didn't play chicken with rolling metal shells.
The older drivers haven't picked up the more pedestrian friendly attitudes on the roads and in society. They still treat it as dog-eat-dog. (And probably aren't watching side walks).
realityinflux@reddit
Not intending to be snarky, but the explanation has to do with culture change for the older people, who learned to drive when the car was king and pedestrians were on their own, and for the younger people, a lack of awareness and a weird sort of cavalier attitude about crosswalks and the general idea of "right-of-way" making them invincible. I apologize--that was just a little snarky.
So, driving rules haven't really changed, technically, but attitudes about them have. Older people need to catch up--I'm in my 70s and have learned to become hyper aware of crosswalks because, unlike when I was 20 years old, pedestrians will actually walk out in front of a car because they have a crosswalk and feel like they are right because they have the right of way. I absolutely don't want to kill anybody.
I'm a pedestrian too, most of the time, because I live downtown and don't need a car that often. I do not walk out in front of cars. I look and wait until no cars are coming. Often while I'm waiting for traffic to clear, there is a crosswalk right in front of me.
Erik0xff0000@reddit
poor peripheral vision
slow information procession speed
and of course the "on the phone/distracted driving" that applies to drivers of any age
Cercie256to4@reddit
Don't know.
Yeah old people, yeah that's the problem.