Originally Posted by
kickstart
While it's not an excuse for carelessness, or relieve them of their obligations, a pedestrian has the reasonable expectation that they may cross a street in a lawful manner and that opposing vehicles will yield as obligated.
Motorist, cyclist, pedestrian, it does not matter. If you don't keep your head on a swivel when you step into a live roadway and LOOK AROUND all of the expectations in the world won't help you. Other people screw up all of the time. It is exactly the EXPECTATION of others yielding that pretty much causes 99% of accidents on the roadway. The other 1% is from loss of control of the vehicle.
When I am standing on a curb with intentions of stepping off of it onto a live roadway, my
expectation is that all of the other road users are distracted idiots. I'm the one who still has all of my skin in proper configuration. Not the ones who expect the rest of the world will never mess up.