Dancing in the steet still isn't safe?

[nevermind1534]

53AJ0s5JXPU

[mDust]

HAHA! Natural selection at work right there!

[diluzio91]

LOL... go icecream man!!!

[BuzzKillington]

Owned. He got exactly what he deserved. I hate people like that that.

[d_stilgar]

He's not in a cross walk, but he is in an intersections. He definitely didn't jump in front of any cars and most states have laws that you must yield to pedestrians even if they don't have the right of way (they are more fragile than people in cars). It's obvious that he was being a little dumb, but if he were 20 feet over he would have been in a cross walk and going no slower than an old lady. I put this all on the ice cream truck.

[PauL]

Owned. He got exactly what he deserved. I hate people like that that.

Couldnt have said it better.

[Drum Thumper]

Sings "I'm your ice cream man, stop me when I'm passing by...."

Added bonus, Van Halen covered both Ice Cream Man and Dancin' in The Streets. Almost as ironic as this (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1244104/DJ-Steve-Penk-plays-Van-Halens-Jump-woman-leaps-bridge.html).

[Spawn-Inc]

lol, i love his friends delayed reaction.

[d_stilgar]

I can't believe I'm in the minority on this one.

[FuzzyPlushroom]

D_Stilgar's right - the truck was probably moving too fast, and pedestrians do have the right of way, even if they're doing foolish things. It's not as though he jumped right out in front of it.

I'd call this some Good Humor, though. From what I saw and heard, it was just honky, knockin' a brotha down.


Added bonus, Van Halen covered both Ice Cream Man and Dancin' in The Streets. Almost as ironic as this (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1244104/DJ-Steve-Penk-plays-Van-Halens-Jump-woman-leaps-bridge.html).

Oh, Daily Fail... how you amuse me.

[mDust]

I can't believe I'm in the minority on this one.Jay walking and interfering with the flow of traffic is a crime. Little kids are taught from an early age not to play in the street. This is why. There's absolutely no reason he didn't see that truck, and he expected it to stop so he could continue dancing like a fool. These guys are just idiots and got exactly what they deserved.
Why would dancing in the middle of an intersection, in front of traffic, ever be OK?:facepalm:
EDIT: Also, pedestrians only have the right of way with same-direction traffic. If cross traffic doesn't have a signal or stop sign, that traffic has the right of way.

[SXRguyinMA]

EDIT: Also, pedestrians only have the right of way with same-direction traffic. If cross traffic doesn't have a signal or stop sign, that traffic has the right of way.

unless there's a crosswalk, then the pedestrians ALWAYS have the right of way :up:

[mDust]

unless there's a crosswalk, then the pedestrians ALWAYS have the right of way :up:

Generally, they still don't unless it's marked that they do. At intersections with lights, pedestrians only have the right of way when the light says 'walk' and the parallel traffic has a green light. If it doesn't say 'walk' then they don't, and cross-traffic and cross-pedestrians have the right of way. At a four way stop, pedestrians do have the right of way all the time. At a T-intersection (like in the video) where traffic doesn't stop, pedestrians must wait until traffic clears before proceeding. Also, if there isn't a painted crosswalk and traffic isn't signaled to stop, pedestrians also have to wait for traffic to clear.

And I really shouldn't have to say this, but at no time should a pedestrian ever be dancing in THE MIDDLE OF AN INTERSECTION where traffic ISN'T SIGNALED TO STOP. The dancer is completely at fault.:D

[SXRguyinMA]

here in MA the state law is pedestrians in the crosswalk have the right of way no matter if their walk light it lit or not. as long as they're in the crosswalk they go first. I still agree it's his fault for dancin in the road like a retard though lol

[mDust]

here in MA the state law is pedestrians in the crosswalk have the right of way no matter if their walk light it lit or not. as long as they're in the crosswalk they go first. I still agree it's his fault for dancin in the road like a retard though lol

That doesn't sound right to me. I'm not saying you're wrong, but that seems like it would lead to a lot of problems with traffic flow and, more importantly, pedestrian safety. If people can just walk out into traffic, and a car can't possibly stop the vehicle in time, is the driver still at fault if s/he hits the pedestrian? Cars can't stop on a dime, but pedestrians can.
In MI anyone on the road is required to follow the traffic signals no matter what mode of travel. I'd also like to add, that MI lawmakers don't do anything other than copy what lawmakers in other states do. So it's like this in a lot of other states as well.

[SXRguyinMA]

http://www.omghub.com/salesdevelopmentblog/tabid/5809/bid/407/The-Crosswalk-Law.aspx :D

[mDust]

http://www.omghub.com/salesdevelopmentblog/tabid/5809/bid/407/The-Crosswalk-Law.aspx :D

:D:):neutral::banana::neutral:

[d_stilgar]

I have a few problems with the arguments coming up.

First, I don't believe that the proper punishment for dancing in the street is to get hit by a car, which is what many of you are saying.

Second, the law on pedestrian right of way varies from state to state. mDust, you celebrate what that author is saying about the law, but I've been to MA and unless you step into the cross walk people will not stop for you. It's not that pedestrians are daring you to hit them, it's that drivers know that pedestrians do not have right of way until they enter the cross walk so until the pedestrian enters they just keep driving. It's a perfect cache 22.

This of course results in a game of chicken of sorts. As a regular pedestrian I get pissed when drivers are unwilling to stop. As a result I made a habit of forcing my right of way. I'd walk right into the road making eye contact with the driver as I did it. They would have to slam on their brakes in some cases, despite the fact that I would see them see me and they would not decelerate until they understood that I was not going to stop for them.

Since this was a college town, there were plenty of A-hole morons who didn't understand the law of that state and would drive inches from me. I made it a habit of walking with my keys out to key any car that had the nerve to drive within arm length of me. It was infuriating. I never got hit because I was very aware and I didn't walk in front of cars if they didn't have a reasonable amount of time to both see me and slow down. However, about a half dozen people got hit every year and often enough someone died. Drivers are too impatient.

The reason that pedestrians get the right of way is because they are going to lose any game of chicken. The reason this works in the US is because most of our cities make it nearly impossible for pedestrians to get around, so there are very few of them. This means that the times you are inconvenienced are few and far between. In the few places where there are tons of pedestrians it can get irritating for the cars that have to wait, but let's turn the tables.

Cars protect the people inside them, especially if there's an accident between a car an a person.
Cars are faster, weigh more, and can accelerate faster than pedestrians.
Cars will almost always get to their destination faster than a person walking.

If it were left up to anarchy who would always have the right of way? Cars for sure. People would be terrified of getting hit, especially if the law didn't protect them, so they would wait indefinitely for the cars to clear, which may never happen, or run across the road when a small break comes.

However, if we give the pedestrians the right of way no matter what, even if they are being stupid like the guy in the video, then we protect the most life. Even in a case where there's an un-indicated (no light) cross walk, and there's a 4 minute line of people crossing and blocking all the cars, if the people walking and the people driving are both going to a destination more than a mile away, then the cars will probably still get there first. Holding up the cars for that time didn't really make much of a difference in the time taken to get to a destination, and if it's such a problem, then maybe some drivers will convert to walking.

Do I think the dancing guy was being stupid? Of course I do. He should have moved 20 feet over into the cross walk. He would have had the right of way. Even then, it's impolite to take a really long time to cross the street. He was being an idiot, that's for sure, but he does not deserve to be hit by a car. He does deserve a ticket for jay walking. That would be justice.

I still make the point that none of the cars stopped to let him cross the street, which is really stupid. All the cars driving by without stopping, some of them within a foot of him, give no indication to other cars (including the ice cream truck) that there may be a danger in the road. That means that the ice cream truck driver doesn't think that there's any danger, and therefore isn't looking for it until it's too late. That makes the fault of this accident on both the dancer and all those that didn't responsibly yield.

[mDust]

d_stilgar, something tells me you're quite passionate about this topic. I too walk to work, to school and anywhere else I go. I'd usually bike, but both my car and bike are out of service for a while. However, I must disagree that the guy didn't deserve to get hit by an ice cream truck. I would even go as far as to say that I too would deserve to get hit by an ice cream truck if I were to dance in the middle of a busy intersection. It's an INCREDIBLY stupid thing to do. And him getting hit was a small sacrifice for the greater good. Everyone that watches the video thinks 'haha. owned!' and stumbles off into the depths of the internet. They are subconsciously informed that they shouldn't dance in busy intersections, thus 'intersection dancing' related deaths decrease. This stupid, noble man must have known this would happen and martyred himself.

I would argue that the blame for the accident in the video was on the guy that bit it. What sane, clear-headed person would dance out in front of traffic? If I was driving and saw a guy dancing on the side of the road, I'd give him some space, but I definitely wouldn't consider the possibility of him dancing out in front of me. It appears to me that his shenanigans were not an attempt to actually cross the street, but to be a complete d**ch*b*g and dance out into traffic, causing a scene on video. When he steps out in front of a high-speed vehicle, that was his dumb*ss action that set the stage for impact. If he lived, it's back to the drawing board for him!

On the topic of 'right of way', I don't believe cars or pedestrians should have any favoring. It's true that cars are faster than people and they can slow down or stop and still travel a further distance in less time, but the opposite is also true. A car takes a much longer distance to stop than a person on foot takes to stop. This is probably a large contributing factor to all the deaths you mentioned. Having people walk out into traffic is just a bad idea. If I were you, I'd lobby your local government to update the traffic laws there to something a bit safer. I cross several very busy streets each day on foot and cannot even imagine having to walk out in front of 20-40mph vehicles that could run me over without even slowing down. I much prefer the 'everyone on the street obeys the signals' philosophy that is practiced here and elsewhere. While crossing the aforementioned streets, I'm usually in no danger whatsoever when traffic is stopped. I still keep an eye on what the drivers are doing though. Can't be too safe when 50% of drivers are occupied by at least one other task while driving.

[d_stilgar]

What usually happens with these deaths is that there is a crosswalk in the road between intersections. It's marked and there are clear signs. Someone enters the crosswalk and cars stop, but an idiot behind them is impatient and decides to go around the stopped car, accelerates too quickly and is too busy making an ugly face at the stopped driver to notice the people in front of them.

Most of these laws are state laws, and almost all states favor pedestrians the way I stated and probably for the reasons I've stated.

Looking at the video again the guy is dancing slow and is already far into one lane when he starts to dance quickly to the other side of the street. The cars were moving to the far left of the lane and even into the other lane to go around him. The ice cream truck is doing the same thing when it hits him. He is 20 feet from a crosswalk.

I hate idiots in the road as much as the next guy. I hate people who start crossing the road too late and their in front of me when the light turns green. I really hate people who see that they have done this and don't walk any faster, but I don't think for one second that these people deserve to be hit. This man's presence in the road was obvious for a long time. People should have slowed down, even if he's an idiot, which he is, but he does not deserve to get hit by a car. He deserves a ticket for jaywalking.

[mDust]

What usually happens with these deaths is that there is a crosswalk in the road between intersections. It's marked and there are clear signs. Someone enters the crosswalk and cars stop, but an idiot behind them is impatient and decides to go around the stopped car, accelerates too quickly and is too busy making an ugly face at the stopped driver to notice the people in front of them. This wouldn't happen at all if everyone was forced to obey traffic signals or pedestrians waited for traffic to clear before crossing at non-intersection crosswalks.



Most of these laws are state laws, and almost all states favor pedestrians the way I stated and probably for the reasons I've stated.
I don't think this is true, as I've been to several states and have never heard of pedestrians having to walk into traffic to cross. No need to look up multiple state laws though. This discussion doesn't need to go THAT far.:D



I hate idiots in the road as much as the next guy. I hate people who start crossing the road too late and their in front of me when the light turns green. I really hate people who see that they have done this and don't walk any faster, but I don't think for one second that these people deserve to be hit. This man's presence in the road was obvious for a long time. People should have slowed down, even if he's an idiot, which he is, but he does not deserve to get hit by a car. He deserves a ticket for jaywalking.Not a big fan of Darwin Awards then? The more evolutionary pressure we remove the worse off we'll be in the future... I say 'Fahrenheit 451' it and mow those suckers down! Streets were built for vehicles!

Despite my opinions here I did see a guy run a red light yesterday and almost wipe out a woman and her 5 kids that were crossing. She started punching and kicking the stopped car until he took off again. Roads are never a safe place to be on foot. Where are the pedestrian tubes from every great futuristic TV program?...such as Futurama.

[d_stilgar]

This wouldn't happen at all if everyone was forced to obey traffic signals or pedestrians waited for traffic to clear before crossing at non-intersection crosswalks.


Traffic doesn't stop. There are always cars coming. That's why they should have right of way and why they do.



I don't think this is true, as I've been to several states and have never heard of pedestrians having to walk into traffic to cross. No need to look up multiple state laws though. This discussion doesn't need to go THAT far.:D


You obviously misunderstand something. I'm talking about a logical sequence as a result of current laws. If cars have a right of way until you are in the crosswalk, but you can't enter the crosswalk until there are no cars, but the cars aren't stopping unless you enter then we have a chicken egg problem. If there's a signaled crosswalk then obviously the pedestrian doesn't have right of way until until the sign says "walk."



Not a big fan of Darwin Awards then? The more evolutionary pressure we remove the worse off we'll be in the future... I say 'Fahrenheit 451' it and mow those suckers down! Streets were built for vehicles!


I like the Darwin awards, but they are funny because people do something that kills themselves. If another person can be blamed, even a little, then it isn't a very good Darwin award. In response to, "streets were built for vehicles," I agree. People do not take up an entire lane walking in the street, and the subject that we are talking about is crosswalks, a device designed for pedestrians to be able to cross the street. You are obviously grasping at straws in an argument you are clearly losing. In response to "mow those suckers down" I say that you are an idiot. What if monster truck drivers decided that you didn't deserve to live because you drive a sissy little car and ran you over because you stupidly stopped at a red light, or decided to run a red light and run you over in the intersection when you had the right of way? Your arguments of cars over pedestrians sound a bit too much like the arguments of a monster truck driver over small cars.



Despite my opinions here I did see a guy run a red light yesterday and almost wipe out a woman and her 5 kids that were crossing. She started punching and kicking the stopped car until he took off again. Roads are never a safe place to be on foot. Where are the pedestrian tubes from every great futuristic TV program?...such as Futurama.


I think you defend my arguments too well, roads aren't a safe place because drivers are irresponsible and careless. The man in the video is being careless and the part of you that celebrates his getting hit by a truck is the part of all of us that gets frustrated when people who deserve to get a ticket don't. We all hope for a little vigilante justice. But in every case we should all hope that the punishment fits the crime. Had this man gotten a ticket for jaywalking then that would have been justice. The sort of justice we would want would be for him to get hit with a water balloon or to get slapped out the window by a passing car. Thinking that justice in this case is for him to have broken bones or a skin graft is wrong.

[mDust]

You are obviously grasping at straws in an argument you are clearly losing. In response to "mow those suckers down" I say that you are an idiot.Well, I'm not trying very hard to 'win' the argument here...it was more of a 'friendly discussion' based around two differing viewpoints from my perspective. I'm not upset with you in any way. But since this is a logical argument for you, then you should keep the ad hominem out of it. "Mow those suckers down" was clearly a joke that you missed.



Traffic doesn't stop. There are always cars coming. That's why they should have right of way and why they do.
Traffic signals are used in areas where traffic volume is too high to be safely unregulated. If there truly are no gaps in traffic, then the volume is too high for pedestrians to be safely crossing without signals. The pedestrians should either be detouring to a signaled crosswalk or petitioning their city to put up a small crosswalk light that is always green for traffic until someone wants to cross. Nobody should ever be forced to step in front of a moving vehicle. Since people have died doing so, I would think the city would listen with an open mind.



You obviously misunderstand something. I'm talking about a logical sequence as a result of current laws.
I don't think I misunderstood. Walking out in front of a vehicle that weighs 20+ times more than the pedestrian, is traveling 10 times as fast, and potentially isn't going to stop is illogical. That was my point from the beginning of this discussion.



I think you defend my arguments too well, roads aren't a safe place because drivers are irresponsible and careless. The man in the video is being careless... We all hope for a little vigilante justice. But in every case we should all hope that the punishment fits the crime. ... Thinking that justice in this case is for him to have broken bones or a skin graft is wrong.
Nothing I said defends your argument. Neither of us were saying that roads were safe for pedestrians. Many drivers are irresponsible and careless, that doesn't need to be argued by anyone. It's a given. The man in the video was displaying more carelessness and irresponsibility than anyone else I've seen lately. Inconveniencing others in a dangerous fashion for entertainment purposes? I think the punishment did fit the crime. He's not a simple jaywalker. Besides, pain is the best teacher and bones heal. I'm sure he had plenty of time to think about where things went so wrong during his recovery.

For future reference, if anyone sees something I said that is completely outrageous, it's a joke and was intended to be so. Any responses to this should be made calmly and preferably with more bananas.