Jaywalking here is not a misdemeanor, it's a civil right, and a survival skill. I have seen groups of people spontaneously vote that it was the pedestrians turn, by moving en mass across a street, stopping cars as necessary. Most, though certainly not all, are alert and nimble - probably thanks to natural selection. I will miss that when I go to SLC, and will have to remind myself not to cross safely at my own discretion.
I will also, occasionally miss the rainfogmist.
12 comments:
When do you leave?
Heh. I had to be instructed many years ago on a visit to California that people use crosswalks and not to just walk out into the street.
It was one of those misty days yesterday, and not real cold either. Doubled the size and frizziness of my hair in minutes.
I'm afraid I have a typically unenlightened British view on jaywalking, which I shall spare you.
P, so are you pro or anti? Can't tell.
TG, A week from Thursday. Early, early.
leslee, my hair is waving all over.
Well in case I don't say it again nearer the time, wishing you a smooth passage, a bright new chapter...
Z: Perhaps this will make the British stance on jaywalking clear. (It takes five armed police officers to stop us.)
The closest I ever came to being killed while crossing the road was at a pedestrian crossing, with the light telling me to walk. I also once had to physically leap out of the way of a car that I had thought was slowing down to let me cross a zebra crossing, but was in fact just slowing down as it neared a T-junction.
When 'jaywalking', on the other hand, I have no such signals telling me it's safe when, in fact, it might not be.
P,
OH! Yes.
Sheesh! I am getting too old to jaywalk. No nimble leap to safety here! But jaywalking is practiced daily, by others.
like the photo, too
Oh, so that's where I learned it. Bostonians also sneak through stop signs with the car in front of them, or at least we did when I lived there.
I always feel a bit like a bad girl when jaywalking.
I get the impression here that zebra and pedestrian crossings are just put there to keep both pedestrians and motorists on their toes; the zebras are put in the most bizarre and difficult places to stop, the green-man crossings can just as easily be open to a stream of traffic coming round the corner... hardly anyone stops or expects you to stop at a zebra, pedestrians look surprised and confused and when you do, scurry across looking deeply mistrustful. Or they just cross a few yards down from the crossing. I asked once why they're there at all, 'insurance' came the reply.
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