When a car driver says "careless pedestrian" I hear "inattentive, selfish, driver".
This is probably a cultural thing, because jaywalking isn't a crime here.
Sure the inattentive driver may be an asshole that should not be allowed to drive a car - but he is the one in the 1+ ton tin can and if does not see you, you lose.
Younger generation are crazy to me, I see them crossing the street without even looking up, anywhere, at any time without any consideration for their visibility. I'm one of those inattentive, selfish, driver and it scares me to death.
So what about self-preservation on the road until we get those fancy autonomous cars ? Car can and should drive more slowly, but pedestrians also need to look where they are going. If the street were an industry setting, health and safety regulation would probably prevent you to move if any vehicle was moving at all, even if they were all autonomous. And you would have to go through gory induction video of what happens if you don't respect that rule and either the machine fails or you underestimated inertia.
[1] Sometimes I'm looking at a parking spot, sometimes I'm looking at that cyclist that is tailgating me and will crash in my car if I'm taking slowing down too fast. Sometimes the visibility is not great, sometimes my 2 year old is making a mess. Autonomous car have sensors everywhere but a human driven car only has 1, a very powerful one, but just one.
After about 10-12 seconds, the other cars had cleared, and the crosswalk light had switched from the green hand to the red countdown. She started to make the turn, at which point the two pedestrians literally ran into the crosswalk, and in front of her car, with no warning. Apparently they had just noticed the countdown timer and wanted to make it across the intersection without waiting for another cycle.
Fortunately she noticed the pedestrians and stopped. The pedestrians continued their run across the intersection, apparently oblivious to the fact that they'd almost been struck
Keeping in mind the following:
1. Right turns on red are legal and expected.
2. It is illegal for a pedestrian to enter a crosswalk once the countdown timer starts.
3. Full evaluation of this intersection required visually evaluating an area of 180-200 degrees, but human beings don't have vision that wide, and so it was impossible for the driver to continuously evaluate both the oncoming cars on the left and the pedestrians on the right.
4. Drivers in California are trained to look left while making a right turn.
What was the driver supposed to do in this scenario? Should the driver have been at fault if she had struck the pedestrians, and if so, why?
I was sitting in the passenger seat, so I could evaluate the intersection and see how my friend was evaluating it as well. As far as I could see, she did nothing to violate either California law or driving custom. On the other hand the pedestrians both entered a crosswalk illegally, and also violated section 21950(b) of the California Vehicle Code (which requires pedestrians to exercise due care for their own safety when entering a roadway). So I don't think that if she had struck them, she would have been at fault. But am I wrong? If so, why?
This is insanity on the level of blaming the sun for your lack of vision. If you can't see shit, you first and foremost need to stop.
Growing up it was always drilled into us to look both ways before crossing, even in the crosswalk. Now people can't be bothered to look even one way.
>That's probably a good thing. Car drivers need to get out of the mindset that they own the roads.
The problem with that is the time period before AI cars are ubiquitous. In my area I've already seen pedestrians act far more carelessly now that the pedestrian right of way laws have been enhanced and there's been an uptick in pedestrian fatalities. Sometimes giving people the impression that something is safe makes them behave so much more recklessly than they would have originally.