Pedestrians have right of way at pedestrian crossings. Cars have right of way elsewhere.

https://sso.agc.gov.sg/SL/RTA1961-R24?DocDate=20190131#pr4-

This is pretty standard, and Singapore is way safer for pedestrians than virtually any Asian country outside Japan.

In many states of the US, cars are never granted right of way over pedestrians. Instead pedestrians are required to yield the right of way to cars outside of crosswalks.

It's an important distinction because it places a legal burden on the driver to attempt to avoid hitting a pedestrian.

Pedestrians generally have right of way. Singapore is pretty exceptional in this. Further, loads of Asian countries are pretty poor safety wise. I don't think a comparison to other Asian countries is beneficial. Singapore probably also benefits that owning a car is quite expensive, plus sort of ok public transport (a bus is terribly slow though!). Singapore still heavily favours a car. A public transport ride can be easily 2x-3x the time as a car trip.

From your link: > Elderly pedestrians accounted for two-thirds of all pedestrian fatalities. (1 in 2 accidents involving elderly pedestrians was due to jaywalking)

Singapore does seem safe in a deaths/100k comparison. There's some EU figures where the best country does about ~20/million (so around ~2.0/100k). Singapore has 2.2/100k.

Things such as "jaywalking" is not a thing in loads of countries.

Also, the traffic lights are horrendous. You need to wait way too long. See e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knbVWXzL4-4 for various examples of way quicker lights.

On the other hand, one of the laws that nobody bothers to enforce in Singapore is jaywalking.

I’m unsure why you’re being downvoted. But it’s true. Unless you’re jaywalking in a busy area and causing distribution to traffic. The police don’t really mind if you jaywalk providing it’s safe for you to do so.

Edit: I guess the truth doesn’t matter on HN.

It's especially funny considering I'm a Singaporean citizen.

There's a blind corner near the Smithsonian in Washington DC. Giant "no crossing" signs. Pedestrians get hit all the time. It used to be standard for the police to write tickets to the person who got hit if they lacked life threatening injuries.

Then one time the person who got hit died in the hospital from a pre-existing condition, so they stopped writing the tickets.

So it's like Chicago, but clean?