Seems a little barbaric, surely its the wrong way to teach road safety?! Car drivers should learn to anticipate hazards as in the UK. Not instead be found to be "annoyed" because pedestrians were walking across the road.

Is it not a civil duty to look after those more vulnerable than you?!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6251431.stm

QuoteI was in Honolulu recently and a cop called to me "Hey you, no jaywalkin in future". I said OK and hurried off. I asked my hotel desk clerk what it was all about and he said that because of the anti-gay, repressive local authorities, walking in an effeminate manner had been outlawed. I spent the rest of my holiday walking like John Wayne and escaped police harassment. Now I know the truth! Bet the clerk had a right old hoot at my expense.

 :mrgreen:

The problem there is southern redneck cops with an axe to grind. Remember my stories of being threatened with jail for riding a bicycle in the park, or being physically intimidated by an off duty cop at a supermarket? Yeah, its small or lack-of-dick Powah (tm) syndrome.

Jaywalking is rightfully illegal in a lot of cities, and enforced in few. Seattle is fierce about it, but then again, the hills downtown are so fierce that even if a car wanted to stop for you, they might not be able to.

The Briton who was wrassled to the ground was a victim of excessive force. If it had happened to me, Id have filed a complaint of excessive force at the PD and if it had been aggressive enough, hired a lawyer to have the officer removed from duty. Thats assault, not policing.

completely retarded

if it is safe to cross the you should have to wait until you come to a set of lights etc..

As for the cop    

Quote from: M3ta7h3adSeems a little barbaric, surely its the wrong way to teach road safety?! Car drivers should learn to anticipate hazards as in the UK. Not instead be found to be "annoyed" because pedestrians were walking across the road.

Some Eurpean countries have the law that the driver is always responsible in the case of a child but we dont have such regulation. Really you are expected to show common sense as a driver, in keeping an eye on pedestrians as much as reasonable. As a pedestrian you are supposed to be reasonably vigilant in looking both ways before you cross the road and not step in front of a bus like one young woman did while talking to her friend, I just managed to grab her and pull her back or she would have been squashed.

Unfortunately you cant put all the blame onto drivers.

In this case though you can put it entirely onto the American police for not making it clear that they were police and not making the requirements clear to pedestrians

I dont know while in the uk the responsibility lies with both parties, however mainly with that of the driver. The jaywalking laws seem to be a bit draconian at best. I certainly wouldnt think twice about crossing a road if its clear or I deem it to be safe.

And that goes for the UK, USA or any other country that has jaywalking laws.

I was jaywalking in the states and no one stopped me.

In CA if u are using a zebra crossing cars should stop the same in sweden but not in the UK ? I had to jump to  escape being hit by an ambulance comming in high speed with NO sirens on or lights blinking, it must have come round a corner way down the street, when I started to cross on the zebra crossing it was not in sight !!!!  I would of corse moved away earlier if it had the sirens on and lights blinking or are u supposed to run over sebra crossings if a car is approching it ?

In the UK at zebra crossings a car is meant to stop.

If an ambulance is coming at a higher than normal speed then assume the worst and that hes just not flicked his blinkers on yet. I let them through.

Same with junctions, if a pedestrian is waiting to cross and a motorist wishes to come from a side road, onto a main road the motorist must allow the pedestrian to cross first.

uk doesnt have enough crossings

you would have to cross about 5 roads to find your nearest crossing