Pedestrian crossings

[hobbit]

The law in almost all regions says that pedestrians have the right
of way, especially in marked crosswalks. Unless the crosswalks
are controlled by walk/don't-walk signs as part of the traffic
light system. But every town has its share of uncontrolled
crosswalks as well, and technically when someone comes to one end
of the crosswalk intending to cross, auto traffic must stop for
them.
.
Usually, in an already slow area such as parking lots or at lights
when traffic is likely stopped or just turning anyways, it makes
sense. How well drivers pay attention and obey this is sometimes
another matter, and sometimes the timing of when the pedestrian
makes clear an intent to cross vs. where a car is gets dicey such
that a car shouldn't need to make an abrupt stop, and can get safely
past the crosswalk before the pedestrian reaches the traffic lane.
.
However, think about this for a minute: A sudden stop and then having
to restart is a HUGE energy hit to a vehicle. It takes a lot less
energy to stop the 150-pound piece of meat than the 3000 pound
lump of scrap metal, especially if said scrap metal is traveling
anywhere over, say, 20 mph. At that point, pedestrians taking
advantage of their legally-given right to stop traffic is not only
a major annoyance to drivers, it can waste significant resources.
.
What do you think would be the merit and the entailed work to
institute changes, such that there would be certain types of
pedestrian crossing areas where they *don't* have right of way for
the sake of smoother vehicle traffic flow? Personally, I really
hate having to almost panic-stop for some asshole who's on his
cellphone and not even paying attention and decides to just casually
saunter across the street when I'm on a nice 30 mph glide. And yet
if he arrives at the curb and I keep going past, even if the timing
is such that I had plenty of margin, I can get pulled over for it.
This is just WRONG in many situations, and especially for vehicles
that are going to burn all that kinetic energy away in brakes and
then have to use even more to re-launch afterward.
.
_H*

[bgdrewsif]

The alternative is for you to just run right over the pedestrain, and that may dent your prius and that would be a shame...

[jamarimutt]

Not a problem in Puerto Rico... cars never stop at crosswalks, and pedestrians don't expect them to stop.

[diemonde]

Unless it rains and there are less then a few cars I allways sign drivers to drive through. This because I am aware of the energy spoils. It's to bad I am one of the few and it's not because I am a driver myself. I only have my license for a few months and I always did this. The problem is if I sign and I walk through the car driver is still responsable. I think it would great if everywhere over the world there would be one sign to tell drivers to go through instead of stop. Maybe holding up your hand....

[daronspicher]

Forget the energy issue, at best that is an attempt to divert the attention from the real issue.

If you're a selfish asshole (as you seem to think the pedestrian is), then you are driving around, and the whole world revolves around you. You are all about you, so stopping for someone else is clearly not plan A, and really, to yield or stop for someone else to have the right-of-way would be to think that they may have a plan for their day or need to get to their car to continue with what they need to do. Heck, it may be real windy out, may be raining, it may be a mother with 2 children in tow, but let's not cause YOU to burn an extra 1/32 ounce of gas and wait an extra 12 seconds for them to cross safely while you sit in your comfortable car and obey the cross walk laws.

I know that if this is your mindset, that thinking of someone else, or waiting for someone else was an all fresh and new concept. thinking of someone else has never been done, so that was a new angle on how to handle a situation. It probably caught you a little off balance and may be a little uncomfortable at first. If you do it a couple times, you my actually begin to like it.

The best part... is how this tends to work out in life. You may run a few crosswalks in your day and get away with it... But... that one day when you finally run one too many and you finally hit someone, it's not going to be that overweight (insert your worst favorite race) (insert your worst favorite gender) (insert your worst favorite age) person. It's going to be some old lady who's been a grandmother to the entire city for the last 60 years, or some really beautiful pregnant lady with one baby in the stoller and another toddler in the other hand. All you'll be in the newspapers is the impatient selfish AHole that hit that innocent person in the cross walk. You'll probably only spend 15 years for killing 'em..

Have a very nice selfish life.

[FourOhFour]

On the other hand, making it more difficult for pedestrians to cross the street will only encourage them to drive places. Which is the bigger energy loss?

I'd rather go the other direction. Add more marked crosswalks. On signalized crosswalks, make the call buttons interrupt the cycle sooner. Enforce the law giving pedestrians the right of way more. (Around here, most people won't stop.)

Maybe if crossing roads wasn't a pain, people would be willing to walk farther than from Wal-Mart's parking lot to Wal-Mart.

[gordonr]

It would be a sad day if cars had the right of way over pedestrians. However, I do feel some small towns around here go overboard when they have an official crosswalk every 50 feet or so along a downtown streach. Not that such a layout mitigates the need to stop, it does make driving through those towns a bit like a video game where people are coming at you in a non-stop fashion as you try to navigate along the street. I think drivers have a hard time processing this much data and that is a safety issue.

Sometimes I ride on a bicycle trail that has a couple of signaled crossings. There is a bit of guilt bringing a line of traffic to a stop on your command, but the alternatives aren't very safe (if I see a safe clearing coming up, I'll just wait for the traffic to pass, but this is usually the exception rather than the rule).

What bothers me most is seeing very poorly timed traffic control. There you have big time energy waste where a little work and money would have a huge efficiency payoff.

[TonyPSchaefer]

EV button.
Sometimes, when I have to make a short stop, I'll punch the EV and use it to get the car back up to around 30 MPH. Then I turn it off and continue on.

[EricGo]

Timed lights, one - way streets.

Hobbit, your energy frugality side will really get mad if you compare your hunk of steel to a 30 lb toddler

[hyo silver]

Pedestrians have rights of way over vehicles for many good reasons. Energy use also favours the pedestrian. If you're so concerned about it, leave the car at home and walk. After learning what it's like to be a lowest class citizen (people only walk because they can't afford a car, right?), go back to driving with an attitude of respect for those 'in your way'.