Mtracer

I'm would guess they were looking to their left for oncoming traffic to make a right turn on red and paying no attention to anything that might be coming from your direction.

I know in my state (New Mexico) pedestrians have the right of way in crosswalks at all times EXCEPT when the crosswalks are at intersections with lights. In that case the pedestrian only has the right of way if they have a walk signal or the light is green for them. Though I'm never quite sure where bikes fit in in the pedestrian-crosswalk thing. Of course, I can't think of anything that gives someone turning right on red the right of way over anyone else, ever.

I see cars doing the right on red all the time that seem to think it just means they have to stop. Not that they then have to yield to anyone. And 80% of the time, the stop over the crosswalk that goes across in front of them. I see pedestrians cutoff crossing at crosswalks all the time. The cars stop, look for oncoming traffic, but not for people in the crosswalks. I chalk it up to what we all suffer from, and that is complacency due to getting used to the most likely situations. We sort of drive on autopilot only looking for the things that we typically need to be concerned with.

Ideally we should all be fully aware and actively looking all the time driving. But the reality is we don't. Being a cyclist, I try to make an effort to specifically look for cyclists. But I think most of us have our minds on other things while driving and it's easy to overlook something coming from an unexpected direction. This is one reason I use a flashing daytime light. I'll even make a point to turn my handle bars to make sure my light passes across the line of sight of a car in this type of situation. No idea if it has ever made a difference.

Also, I'm wondering if the phrase "Jesus F-ing Christ, a-hole" is some sort of instinctual thing to say in these situations. I know it's my go-to phrase.