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| Angelika/Mike Schilli |
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Michael When I'm out and about as a pedestrian, I find California drivers easier to tolerate than those from other states or even the Germans. Okay, most Californians can't drive at all, creeping along like five-year-olds, but thanks to automatic transmissions, the car still moves forward. However, California drivers simply lack the most basic skills to assess situations in traffic. Just like someone who is already behind the wheel at the age of five.
But, anyway: they generally drive very cautiously. If they have to stop at a stop sign or make a turn, they will stop even if a pedestrian is merely thinking about crossing the intersection at some point in the near future. This is by no means standard; in other states or even in Germany, pedestrians are not given priority and cannot blindly cross the street.
However, there is one exception that often makes me rub my eyes here: crosswalks without stop signs. As a Californian pedestrian, you bravely march towards the middle of the street and are surprised to find that no driver stops.
According to the traffic regulations, this is clearly defined: pedestrians have the right of way at a crosswalk, regardless of whether the driver has a stop sign or not. Curiously, I asked an American acquaintance about this, and he explained that it is an unwritten rule that drivers only stop at intersections with a stop sign, as pedestrians can, in God's name, wait until the car has passed.
This discrepancy between the traffic regulations and the Californian understanding of them was recently investigated by the local police in San Francisco. They stationed a police officer in a giant rooster costume at a crosswalk and instructed him to step onto the crosswalk to cross the street as cars were approaching.
Anyone who did not stop was quickly pursued by a motorcycle police officer with flashing lights, who forced the speeder to stop and handed out an expensive ticket. The law enforcers here certainly do not lack creativity, that must be admitted. However, some people immediately got upset and accused the SFPD (San Francisco Police Department) of not addressing the real problems in the city. The police have it tough in this town; you just can't please the citizens here!
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