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July 21, 2008
When Pedestrians Piss Off Drivers
We are all about the "people first" concept, which is planning for people, not cars when developing a new building or road. However, pedestrians still need to follow the law. Saturday night's traffic in Santa Monica for the Glow Festival was only worsened by the fact that pedestrians would cross streets against the walk signal's "don't cross" hand. Witnessed at just about every intersection, this left vehicles in all directions backed up and clogged at intersections more than they would without. We all have to work together, even when you're just on two feet.
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"... traffic in Santa Monica for the Glow Festival was only worsened by the fact that pedestrians would cross streets against the walk signal's "don't cross" hand."
I've seen this phenomenon before. It's like those nature films where you see a herd of wildebeests crossing a stream full of hungry crocodiles. The leader crosses, so the rest follow while the crocodiles feast out on the closest, least lucky ones.
Herd mentality.
But then I've seen automobile drivers do the same thing. Standing there looking at a walk signal, while the first car flys by making a right hand turn in front of me, either doesn't know or doesn't care that I have the right of way, and suddenly more cars stream past oblivious to the fact that I'm trying to cross the street and still happen to have the right of way.
Herd mentality
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It seems like that is more of a symptom than the actual problem--the city should have taken into account how to deal with the masses of people and cars when they planned this thing. I know people who would have taken the blue bus had it been running past its usual 11pm end time, but instead they drove.
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well i was there too. I rode my motorcycle so i was typically in the front of those intersections and the biggest problem was god-damned cars jamming the intersection full before their light turned red. Thus the traffic just trying to get through and out of there couldn't move until that light was turning red. Yes pedestrians are idiots sometimes but they are here and gone and they didn't cause the major backups i saw.
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I'm all for LA having more aggressive pedestrians. If a car is going a low speed around a corner and you have the right of way, start stepping in front of them. They'll stop, oh they'll stop.
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"When you have a few hundred thousand people on the street you have permission."
Tom Hayden
Apparently we need more peds!