What you should know about jaywalking

[sid]

Having said earlier that I've never seen anyone arrested for jaywalking, an article I read a day or two ago implies that maybe they should arrest more people here. The article listed the ten cities in the US with the highest pedestrian deaths. The top four were all Florida cities.

[Thymeclock]

Originally Posted by Piwoslaw

IMO jaywalking laws aren't as much to protect the lives of peds, but to protect innocent drivers from hitting morons.

Gee, I thought they were about having some rules that apply to everyone on the street - not only drivers with licenses and 'deep pockets' when it comes to paying fines.

I mean sure, it would be nice to have certain DNA sequences eliminated from the gene pool, but I'd prefer that my car is not the means by which this is done. Even if I was obeying every single law, and the pedestrian jumped out from behind a bush right into my headlights, then I still get punished for unintentionally causing someone's death, if not by the court, then by my conscience. I killed a moron, but still a human being.

You "get punished"? No, if you feel "punished" that is your sense of guilt for something you didn't cause. Guilt of that sort is totally worthless. It helps no one and accomplishes nothing.

Yes, the police sometimes get anal about catching jaywalkers, like arresting someone for crossing an empty road.

Do people really get "arrested" in Poland for jaywalking? (I doubt that.) Or is this dramatic hyperbole and exaggeration on your part? Does enforcing existing laws automatically make police to be "anal"? Or is this just your prevailing sentiment about law enforcement?

But the line has to be drawn somewhere: If they were to allow people to cross when the nearest car is 500m away, then way shouldn't they when the car is 300m away? 100m? 10m?

We can either have laws and enforce them or have no law and let the foolish experience the consequences of their actions. You seem uncomfortable with either. The Liberal/Socialist/Nanny state approach is to have laws against virtually everything but usually not enforce them. Ultimately that leads to disrespect for the law, with good reason.

[Arragonis]

In the UK there was a move to change the law so that if there was an accident involving a car and something else, a bike or pedestrian, the assumption would always be that the car driver was at fault unless it could be proven otherwise.

They didn't decide who would be to blame if (as usually happens here) a bike decided not to bother stopping for a red light and took out a pedestrian.

*(I'm not anti bikers - I rarely encounter them anywhere but I have nearly been taken out on crossings in the city centre by them)

[320touring]

Originally Posted by Arragonis

In the UK there was a move to change the law so that if there was an accident involving a car and something else, a bike or pedestrian, the assumption would always be that the car driver was at fault unless it could be proven otherwise.

They didn't decide who would be to blame if (as usually happens here) a bike decided not to bother stopping for a red light and took out a pedestrian.

*(I'm not anti bikers - I rarely encounter them anywhere but I have nearly been taken out on crossings in the city centre by them)

Thats a fair point you have there...

however, I still reckon Darwinian wins!

[Arragonis]

As my avatar once said, fit the dashboard with carving knives - all drivers will drive super safe then.

[Thymeclock]

Originally Posted by Arragonis

As my avatar once said, fit the dashboard with carving knives - all drivers will drive super safe then.

You too, can 'drive defensively': mount a machine gun on your hood.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Arragonis

As my avatar once said, fit the dashboard with carving knives - all drivers will drive super safe then.

Not a given. When I went to university, there were dorms across a fairly busy street from the main campus, and a crosswalk at the bottom of a fairly steep hill. And when it snowed (as happened fairly regularly) the students would still blindly walk out into the crosswalk, expecting cars coming down the slippery hill to stop for them.