walking through intersections

youbetcha · October 2009

Look my friend you'll find this everywhere. Ever try driving down Coney Island Avenue? In the evenings especially people just walk against the light with their kids in tow. Even on Ocean Parkway. Ocean Parkway! for God sakes they saunter across in between lights. Some poor guy didn't make it across fast enough and got killed there a few months back. BTW I don't live in Park Slope. I live inside Brooklyn.

idlewild · October 2009

Jay-walking and gunning the gas on yellows has been a way of life in NYC since I've been here. And I've been here for quite a while. I suppose the City needs to crack down on this just like they got rid of riding between subway cars and enforcing a pooper scooper laws to save your footwear.

hunter.gatherer · October 2009

Um, Idlewild, "riding between subway cars and [violating the] pooper scooper law" never put anyone else's life in danger. Drivers who can't wait to get to the next red light kill people by the scores in New York. Is this really funny?

idlewild · October 2009

Um. Hunter. Gatherer, I said "before" the crackdown. During which scores of people were killed and seriously injured riding between subway cars. Especially on the all of the IRT, A, AA, C& CC lines. And before pooper scooper laws, the health hazards all the dog shit and other garbage on the streets would cause rivaled that of third world cities. And, as I have stated before on this forum, the way to produce safer driving is not only enforcement , but to have everyone with a NYS driver's license retake the entire driving test every 5-8 years. This would not only save a ton of lives but weed out a lot of bad drivers. I apologize if my previous post wasn't melodramatic enough to let the OP know that jay-walking in Park Slope as well as NYC in general has been going on since horse & buggy days.

jimmy · October 2009

Subject: Re: walking through intersections

snarkslope wrote: Can someone explain to me why the overwhelming majority of pedestrians in Park Slope are incapable of stopping at red lights when there is car traffic approaching? More often than not, I witness people just sauntering across the street without so much as glancing toward the light. I've never witnessed this phenomenon to such an extreme any where else. Is it general entitlement? Something else?

Because many people in Park Slope are adults, and therefore can judge for themselves whether or not they can make it across an intersection safely without having to depend on an automated light for guidance.

julius orange · October 2009

Does anyone really think this a phenomenon exclusive to Park Slope? It's citywide. And why do people do it? Because they think getting somewhere 2 seconds faster is going to make a difference. Or maybe they're tired of living. This can be seen at the intersection of 4th ave and 9th street near the subway. You have to want to die to venture across there against the light. I wish they'd stop. It makes me nervous. I don't want guts and blood all over me and then have to hang around to talk to the police because I was a witness.

snarkslope · October 2009

Subject: Re: walking through intersections

Jimmy wrote: [quote=snarkslope]Can someone explain to me why the overwhelming majority of pedestrians in Park Slope are incapable of stopping at red lights when there is car traffic approaching? More often than not, I witness people just sauntering across the street without so much as glancing toward the light. I've never witnessed this phenomenon to such an extreme any where else. Is it general entitlement? Something else?

Because many people in Park Slope are adults, and therefore can judge for themselves whether or not they can make it across an intersection safely without having to depend on an automated light for guidance.

More than once they've only made it across because I've screeched on my brakes, and ONLY THEN do they look up at the light. I'm obviously not complaining about people who cross at a red light when there's no traffic coming. Just those who don't bother to check before crossing against the light.

sir_eccles · October 2009

raw wrote: [quote=Old Time Brooklyn]Pedestrians walk when the sign says Don't Walk and cars roll thru Stop signs instead of stopping. This is the way it is. I'm surprised there's not more deaths.

Roll. I've seen cars FLY through red lights.

Don't you know the rules? It is perfectly fine to fly through red lights as long as you sound your horn as you approach.

squindar · October 2009

Jamzer wrote:
I have a related question. Why is it that some drivers feel the need to accelerate through intersections just before the light changes?

Red means stop, green means go, yellow means go faster.

booklaw · October 2009

Starman was a wonderful film.

jschneier · October 2009

What really gets me is that since moving to this area I have seen people texting (at least 4 times in the past month and a half) while riding bikes. This to me seems totally insane.

hitokiri · October 2009

Subject: Re: walking through intersections

Jimmy wrote: [quote=snarkslope]Can someone explain to me why the overwhelming majority of pedestrians in Park Slope are incapable of stopping at red lights when there is car traffic approaching? More often than not, I witness people just sauntering across the street without so much as glancing toward the light. I've never witnessed this phenomenon to such an extreme any where else. Is it general entitlement? Something else?

Because many people in Park Slope are adults, and therefore can judge for themselves whether or not they can make it across an intersection safely without having to depend on an automated light for guidance.

um, not quite.
Much like in the city, A LOT are pompous jerks who know that whatever they do, if a car, bus or bike hits them, the law is 90% on their side, even if they decided to dance in the street.

Most will start to walk exactly when the dont walk light stops blinking and the light turns green for cars.

park place · October 2009

dailyheights wrote: I'm glad someone mentioned this. People casually saunter across red lights on 7th Ave like it's a pedestrian mall. There is a brazen disrespect for wheelestrians.

To be fair, this behavior is just as bad or even worse in Manhattan, especially with regard the pedestrian traffic that runs along the Avenues and across Streets.

Compare this to Tokyo, where a sole pedestrian will patiently wait at a deserted crosswalk at 3 am with no car in sight. Or so I'm told.

Wheelestrians? wow!!! Now THATS an interesting word!

bluemagoo · October 2009

Yo this is Brooklyn so just flip them the bird and honk the horn already. What's to discuss?

ringrunner · October 2009

If only New Yorkers stopped jaywalking, the Post posits, we wouldn't suffer so much needless death and destruction. Adding to a news-ish feature on reckless pedestrians published yesterday, the paper bemoans "jaywalking's steep toll" but says nothing about the rampant speeding and lawless driving that make the simple act of crossing the street so risky. No mention of the fact that many city streets are so wide that elderly New Yorkers can't get across during the allotted time. No indication that the Post editors have the slightest clue about engineering and enforcement improvements like leading pedestrian intervals, red light and speeding cameras, and, most obvious of all, wider sidewalks, which hold the most promise for improving street safety. (cut from Street Blog)

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/jaywalking_on_the_wild_side_3jU0aIOp2M2m0KhVEgU41M

walking through intersections

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