Originally Posted by himespau

There does seem to be a lot of misconception about what "pedestrians have the right of way" means. Some peds think that even if they're going against the light, you should have to stop for them. My main problem is with unsigned crosswalks (ie no lights or stop signs in any direction just a crosswalk and maybe a yield to peds sign). I've had people jump out in front of me and get all up in my face because I somehow didn't sense that because they were walking near the crosswalk that they wanted to use it and that I should come to a complete stop any time I'm on the road and there is anyone even remotely near a crosswalk whether they're moving towards it or not.

Fortunately, I'm slow enough that the 3-4 times this has happened with ped crosswalk vigilantes I've been able to slam on the brakes in time to stop (once almost endo'ed, but that was my bad for braking the way I did). My feeling is that with crosswalks with no traffic control devices, I'll be on the alert for peds, but unless I see you actually in the street or starting out into it, I'm not going to treat it like a stop sign.

As a ped, in those conditions, I only start out into the street when there is a gap in traffic that I can either cross or get at least to the middle. If a car comes up, that way they have plenty of time to see me and stop. I don't expect them to stop so that I can decide whether or not I'm going to cross and I wish others would use them the same way.

FWIW, in general, I absolutely hate the kind of crosswalk I described above. A couple of times, I've been on roads where there's one of those and I'm in a bike lane and the car in the lane next to me stops. I think they're going to do a left turn and are waiting for traffic to clear, but no they're waiting for someone I can't see (often starting on my right, but standing between parked cars) to cross the road. Or they're going to do a left turn. So in every case, I slow down, sometimes necessarily, sometimes not. It'd be easier if they'd just get rid of that kind of crosswalk and people would just cross when it was clear or move to the nearest intersection the light rather than figuring they have some sort of power to tell everyone on the roadway that they all need to stop now so the ped can cross the road. Or you can put a signal there, but I hate, hate them the way they're set up currently.