[citation][nom]manos[/nom]... ( BTw its illegal here in Greece to have a cellphone in use in car period, but we barely have anyone checking on us in the streets. Its like a free for all deal. In CA i remember very well I almost got a ticket for crossing th street without a green light on foot my first day when I had moved there. lol Stupid thing )[/citation]
I totally agree that those jaywalking laws are just stupid. I'm used to crossing highways with heavy traffic which I had to cross every day to get to school. I can tell that you develop a particular skill in predicting the cars movement with millisecond precision so that you learn to cross safely with very tight margins, which looks dangerous to an "untrained" pedestrian. Then I remember one occasion when I was in Australia where I used to cross the streets like that on my way to and from work. Apparently I walked in front of a bus that hit the brakes when I crossed the street. Of course I had the situation under control but the driver didn't seem to think so. Later that day I met a girl at work who happened to be on that bus and she was so upset about it. She was going like; "YOU'RE GOING TO KILL YOURSELF IF YOU WALK LIKE THAT!!!". Well, it's been over a decade and I have not yet experienced any accidents.
I don't want to reveal where I'm originated but in my home country we have no jaywalking laws and I'm willing to bet my life on that we do not have higher fatality rates amongst pedestrians than in countries/states which do have these laws.
So my point is that one should think carefully before stipulating the laws which may turn out to be quite useless in practice.
But I'm f'ing annoyed by people who drive 10mph on the highways blocking the traffic and when I drive past them I see them fingering on a cell phone or a GPS. The GPS is a pain in the *ss; I regularly see people (with a flickering screen behind the windshield) making erratic movements in the traffic, changing lanes without signaling, changing lane in the very last minute to make a turn, and so on.
I totally agree that those jaywalking laws are just stupid. I'm used to crossing highways with heavy traffic which I had to cross every day to get to school. I can tell that you develop a particular skill in predicting the cars movement with millisecond precision so that you learn to cross safely with very tight margins, which looks dangerous to an "untrained" pedestrian. Then I remember one occasion when I was in Australia where I used to cross the streets like that on my way to and from work. Apparently I walked in front of a bus that hit the brakes when I crossed the street. Of course I had the situation under control but the driver didn't seem to think so. Later that day I met a girl at work who happened to be on that bus and she was so upset about it. She was going like; "YOU'RE GOING TO KILL YOURSELF IF YOU WALK LIKE THAT!!!". Well, it's been over a decade and I have not yet experienced any accidents.
I don't want to reveal where I'm originated but in my home country we have no jaywalking laws and I'm willing to bet my life on that we do not have higher fatality rates amongst pedestrians than in countries/states which do have these laws.
So my point is that one should think carefully before stipulating the laws which may turn out to be quite useless in practice.
But I'm f'ing annoyed by people who drive 10mph on the highways blocking the traffic and when I drive past them I see them fingering on a cell phone or a GPS. The GPS is a pain in the *ss; I regularly see people (with a flickering screen behind the windshield) making erratic movements in the traffic, changing lanes without signaling, changing lane in the very last minute to make a turn, and so on.