My city is poorly engineered and has traffic control signals where there is almost no traffic (should be a four-way stop). At many of these intersections, the civil engineers seemed to realize they were being ridiculous and still put in traffic control signals; however, they did not put in any sort of signalling for pedestrians!

So, by law, I can ride across a crosswalk if it's legal for a pedestrian to walk it and I am continuing along sidewalk riding and it is legal to ride on the sidewalk in that area. With a crosswalk light, if I can't cross on bike, then pedestrians also can't cross, so I can't swap to the sidewalk and walk across the crosswalk with my bike to bypass a red light.

However, in this case there is no pedestrian control light!

That means pedestrians can make their way across the zebra crossing as long as it is safe and prudent. That means... theoretically, it's legal for me to hop off my bike, walk it across the zebra crossing, and get back on to ride off.

Anyone do this? Questions? Objections? Half-baked legal theories? Recommendations to call my local representative (who is chair of community development) and ask why in the hell we have traffic control signals at intersections that see 6 cars an hour?

Look both ways, then cross if clear. I wouldn't bother with dismounting, just ride. Legal/illegal only matters if the police are watching, and often not even then when concerning piddling traffic flow issues like this.

97% of people following piddling traffic flow issues like this is why it's safe to leave your house at all.

97% of folks in Baltimore follow the absolute letter of the law? Like, no California stops, no jaywalking, always signaling, never speeding, ect? That is amazing!

From our State code
So, no, pedestrians can't legally cross against the light (and neither can you). But yes, go ahead and call your rep - too many traffic lights just slows it down for everyone.

^^^
Ruh-roh! So it looks like you can't cross zebra crossings until the intersection lights turn green in your direction? Guess you have to just wait for the light to change, which, if it's a sensor light and not a timed one, might take a while. You should take all that extra wait time to compose a letter to your elected rep, highlighting how difficult it is to cross an empty street in Baltimore.

Hmm, interesting, you found a maryland traffic code I'm not familiar with.

Greenbelt? Where the heck is that?

And no, more like just 7% of people in Baltimore follow traffic law. The rest are trying to kill me, which is why I have such damned good reflexes in my car and insist on riding with a large amount of spacing and large margins of errors for my own mistakes and for sudden emergency situations. This is also why I'd like to enforce better driver's ed and more stringent driving tests (if you can't get a license with a 1 hour road test and a skidpad test, then screw you, you don't need to drive), and also just completely revamp our traffic laws to be simpler and make more sense.

I watched the traffic light at the intersection my apartment sits on get toppled by a guy skidding his car through the intersection at like 60mph. He just flew on by, slid up on the curb, knocked over the post supporting the traffic signal, and took out the fire hydrant next to it, and a parked car. I can't explain that one. Pulling out in front of me from a stop, failing to signal, changing lanes and assuming I'll move out of the way, running stop signs ... I get these things. Racing down a side street at 60mph and then launching your car through two street utilities (steel electric post for traffic signal, steel fire hydrant) and into a parked car? Whiskey Tango F**k was this guy doing?

Much like our traffic code, it can be found via Google
Greenbelt sits north-east of DC at the intersection of the BW parkway and I-495.

(kidding about finding traffic code via - I've been trying to find a direct reference to the laws for a while now)

... or, you can use your common sense and judgement.

I try to save my judgment for truly ridiculous laws, like when Texas says that "attempting to get to a destination faster" is a crime punishable by multi-hundred-dollar fines and 8 months in jail. (not speeding, just trying to reach a destination in shorter clock time, while following all other specific traffic laws)

haha, never heard of that. If I were I cop, I might be tempted to have a lot of fun with that one

My spider senses told me that peds have to cross with the light. I'm glad to see the code affirms that.

The same tingling is telling me that, if the area allows you to bike on the sidewalk and you are so doing, then you are a pedestrian whether you are on the bike or walking it, i.e. the whole mounted / dismounted thing is a red herring. I vaguely recall some legalese that, depending on your conduct but not on whether your feet are on the pedals or the ground, you may be in either vehicle mode or pedestrian mode. Does anyone have and care to share the ground truth on that?

It does strike me that it seems most important to know the law so that we understand the risk profile and defensibility of the things we are doing wrong rather than how to do more things right. +1 for the common sense and judgement scheme, though that too can be elusive.

Dunno about MD, but up here your status as a ped or vehicle depends upon where you're riding: ped if on the sidewalk, vehicle if on the road. Used to required for sidewalk cyclists to dismount before entering the crosswalk, but that was rescinded years ago.