I had the opportunity recently to walk in two rather different environments. (Three if you count walking near home, but the amount of traffic is significantly lighter here.) I rarely drive in downtown Chicago; I prefer to take the train in, and if the weather is nice, walk to wherever I’m going.
If you’ve ever walked in downtown Chicago, you know there’s strength in unity… the larger the group of pedestrians is, the more likely that turning cars will have to wait, instead of them pushing through the intersection and making people on foot wait. Yes, in theory, pedestrians have the right of way in a crosswalk. It’s a lovely theory and doesn’t usually hold up to drivers’ impatience.
Imagine my surprise then, walking in Carlsbad, California and having drivers defer to me, a lone pedestrian in a crosswalk. This happened multiple times, so I don’t think it was just a fluke. The weirder part about it was that the turning cars stopped even if I wasn’t to their side of the crosswalk yet, waiting until I was clear before taking the turn.
I was, as ever, delighted not to get run over while out walking, and would love it if the drivers here picked up similar habits. The ease of walking in Carlsbad certainly explains how I managed to walk 18 miles in my week there. Of course, the warmer weather helped too.