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Mindless-Employment t1_j2f6zlm wrote

Reply to comment by veloharris in Your Take on DC Pedestrians? Are they Aloof? by CorporateProvocateur

>That said please don't do the hand motion thing. Just follow the rules of the intersection and proceed. When cars play traffic cop it only confuses things and it's condescending.

This is exactly why I look away from cars when they get to the intersection right before me. I refuse to play the "Go ahead..No, YOU go ahead" game. You were there first, so just go first as you would if I was a car. Because while you're waving me ahead, someone behind you could get impatient, whip around you and hit me OR someone else could pull up at another corner of the intersection and decide they want to go first since neither of us is moving. I know people are trying to be "nice" when they wave pedestrians ahead but it just slows everyone down and creates confusion.

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CorporateProvocateur OP t1_j2f8sve wrote

I have tried the "I go first" thing you described and had pedestrians start screaming at me.

It's not just nice it's about "I see you and your see me" which is a good practice bc even if everyone always intended to follow the rules of the road but missed someone there could be an accident.

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RaTerrier t1_j2fn1ao wrote

Could you describe this situation in more detail? This sounds like a situation where you decided to do something other than what the traffic rules specify, and then received some negative verbal feedback.

I recommend that you go if the law says that you get to go, and you don’t go if the law says that you don’t get to go.

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Mindless-Employment t1_j2faidi wrote

>I have tried the "I go first" thing you described and had pedestrians start screaming at me.

Yeah, there are definitely people who believe that there's some universal, blanket statute granting pedestrians the right of way everywhere, in all circumstances. I have no idea how these people don't get run over five times a year.

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CorporateProvocateur OP t1_j2fi12d wrote

This is the exact vibe I'm describing in this post. The EXACT vibe. Like they have a magical force field and don't need to even risk assess the car.

These are the people I'm talking about. I should have been more clear. Most pedestrians we're normal. What I'm describing here is that I've noticed the incidence of the "force field" / "sovereign Pedestrians" increasing.

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