Ive been shouted at in Germany for crossing at red light, even with no car in sight, and for how bad an example this was for children at the scene.

Rightly so. Children can't (as reliable as you) decide how safe it is in a given situation to cross.

Surely kids should limit themselves to only crossing on green (well, until they grow out of it) but I've taught my children to watch the cars first, not the lights. A green pedestrian light doesn't mean there are no stray cars running red lights or turning-but-not-yielding. It's cars that injure people, not lights, so focus should always be on cars.

That's not why people get riled up even if they think it is. Adults constantly do things in front of children that children cannot or should not do: cooking, handling power tools, driving cars, smoking drinking, etc.

For the most part, this is not a problem, people just explain their kids that these are things that they cannot do now but will be able to do later (hopefully explaining why).

But people don't put crossing the road at a light in those terms, they tell them nobody can safely cross the road safely when the light is red. So an adult doing just that and being safe directly contradicts your message and your authority. It makes you look dumb. And that's why they get riled up.

We should just treat the red light as an aid for the young and infirm and explain it to kids as just that.

Child was holding the hand of the shouting Oma.

I learned to ignore them. The speed limit on the streets where children frequent are max 40 and even lower around traffic lights. Drivers should keep looking and assume neither children nor adults will follow traffic rules. You just need to learn to be defensive if you are navigating tons of steel inside a densely populated area.

Children learn by imitation. That, and not the fear that the child might run after you (?!), is the reason why it’s frowned upon to cross red lights in front of children.

But shouting at strangers is also a bad example. I hate the unbeatable "but think about the children" argument that seems to haunt many discussions. Let the families educate their own children. Educate the drivers that children may randomly jump to the street, may also stay there and not try to evade or do who-knows-what so they should be more careful driving through the city. That's actually the case in Germany, training for a license includes learning to be ridiculously (but usefully) defensive.

As a cyclist in Malmö, Sweden, I wish I could shout at some people sometimes. But truth is that people cross against red all the time with no consequences.

I stay out of principle.

I have been fined by the police at 4 AM for the exact same thing.

And I lived in Germany for 12 years, crossing redlights probably every day, and was never reprimanded.

This was in Berlin.

I know people that have had similar experiences in Austria

> Why would Norwegians be different from other humans?

Different cultures and legal system. I moved from UK to Poland. Almost everybody walks on red light in UK, almost nobody in Poland - you will get fined for doing so. I don't think anyone was fined for walking on red light in UK.

It's much less common to cross against a Do Not Walk signal in countries like Singapore and Japan. I'm pretty sure they're still human.

Singapore is a good example of road crossing habits being culturally influenced. Jaywalking is unusual behaviour everywhere except the Little India district, where it appears to be compulsory ;-)

As a New Yorker I'll never forget how my first time in LA everyone looked at me like an alien when I crossed the street against the light.

_It's not a cultural thing, it's a human thing to be impatient._

True, but certain cultures see impatience as much worse flaw than other cultures leading to significant cultural differences in, say, crossing roads.

Seriously, if you ever visit Japan it will seem strange but people do almost always wait for the light.

I think this is partly is an illusion created by the wider roads. Longer jaywalking distance discourages jaywalking. For example in the nordics wide roads are uncommon so jaywalking becomes more common and safe.

It's a cultural thing. It even differs a lot by city in the US. In NYC, the mindset is take every inch you can get. In a lot of other places, pedestrians pay attention to walk/don't walk signals more than not.

Normal everywhere in the northeast. People think I'm crazy in CA, as a fairly cautious New England pedestrian.

Also there's a traffic law enabling pedestrians to freely cross the road if there is no obstruction to the traffic.

There's still some people that don't know their limits, but that gives an idea of how this works in practice

I do not see this often in Denmark.