Where I live, there’s a law that says all vehicles have to yield for pedestrians at crosswalks. Of course this would be a thing, otherwise crosswalks would only be as good as any part of the road. Despite this, it’s a largely unfollowed rule, to severe degrees. To the extent that me and some friends have a “running gag” (generous way to put it) where some of us bet on who can wait at a crosswalk point and cross the street the quickest without going ahead before cars decided to stop. Tonight I had to wait twenty minutes for a black jeep to stop, the longest I’ve had to wait for years (and side note, I noticed that drivers of certain vehicle types/colors are more likely to stop for you), so I lost that bet tonight if we were doing it.

Some of us have also apparently led drivers to having bad vibes because some of us have used our phones to take extensive video of what’s going on, causing angry drivers (never referring to the ones that do stop for us) to yell that we’re invading privacy. And the response is always something along the line of “what are you going to do, would you really risk exposing yourself just to make a complaint that someone is making a video” before posting them to groups like the main Tumblr road conflict group (such stuff being hidden from there at the moment).

So what’s the longest you’ve ever had to wait to cross the street? And do you notice any etiquette trends like I describe in that one part?

  • @[email protected]
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    211 year ago

    In any eastern European country, I simply look the driver dead in the eye and pass, if they’re far enough to actually stop. However, whenever I visit Greece, especially Athens, not even the green light can save you. There is a running joke among Greeks and it goes along the lines of “stronger car wins”. Basically, if you have a fast car, you have priority on any intersections and pedestrian crossings, and the police do jack shit about it.

    Man, I love Greece, beautiful country, amazing people, but with disfunctioning police and government in general.

    • lol3droflxp
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      1 year ago

      As a German, I was amazed how well I could bully my way through traffic in Greece with a large van (I think it was necessary though since there were no apparent traffic rules).

        • lol3droflxp
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          11 year ago

          It was really nice there though. Just the traffic was really wild along the coast until we were in Croatia.