In urban Oregon and Washington autos are required by law to stop for pedestrians crossing the road. Visiting there, the odd thing to me was how seriously drivers take it... They actually stop if it appears pedestrians are preparing to cross, even. This is distinctly different from most of the US, where it's up to the pedestrians to cross at cross walks or dodge cars at their peril and stepping into the street is more likely to get you honked at than stopped for.
> In urban Oregon and Washington autos are required by law to stop for pedestrians crossing the road. Visiting there, the odd thing to me was how seriously drivers take it... They actually stop if it appears pedestrians are preparing to cross, even.
This is California law, too, and I am beyond tired of people honking at me, peeling out to whip around me, then nearly killing the pedestrian for whom I stopped. I've never been one to succumb to road rage, but every time some impatient Californian gets behind me and starts punishing me for obeying the law, or nearly kills the pedestrian for whom my stopping was signal to proceed, I feel urges I do not wish to feel like walking back to their car with a fucking sledge hammer.
Although people like to get all legal scholar on this rather than just taking the ten seconds to be considerate (toe in a crosswalk? etc, just Google around for armchair Columbos trying to get out of their ticket with lexical study of the law), here's a good formula for driving success in California: if a pedestrian is crossing or preparing to cross the road in a marked or unmarked crosswalk with one of those yellow signs or without, stop. It's not that hard, but drivers here suck so much at this that it burns me. Sit next to Shoreline in Mountain View (south of Central), where there are several mid-block crosswalks that are frequently used, and watch how many people nearly die every day because some dipshit can't be bothered to apply his brake pedal.
At least in New Jersey and New York, I could predict that a driver was going to elect the most selfish choice. I could handle being cut off there because I could generally predict what another driver was going to do and plan accordingly. It felt like professional driving; I knew you were going to cut me off 30 seconds ago. Here? Between everybody texting, being indecisive, and not paying attention, I cannot predict with any measure of certainty what a Californian driver will do, including when I elect to obey the law and stop at a crosswalk. It drives me absolutely nuts.
> In urban Oregon and Washington autos are required by law to stop for pedestrians crossing the road.
Actually, it's required everywhere—even on the freeway. Of course, it's illegal for pedestrians to be walking on the freeway.... But pedestrians ALWAYS have right of way.
