According to the BC Motor Vehicle Act:
“crosswalk” means
(a) a portion of the roadway at an intersection or elsewhere distinctly indicated for pedestrian crossing by signs or by lines or other markings on the surface, or
(b) the portion of a highway at an intersection that is included within the connection of the lateral lines of the sidewalks on the opposite sides of the highway, or within the extension of the lateral lines of the sidewalk on one side of the highway, measured from the curbs, or in the absence of curbs, from the edges of the roadway;
What that means, psycho bitch, is that even if you don’t have a stop sign, an intersection is still a crosswalk and you have to stop. More to the point, if there’s someone CROSSING THE FUCKING STREET you don’t force them to wave their (bright red!) umbrella at you to make you stop.
You then don’t FOLLOW the person for two blocks, telling them off for CROSSING THE STREET LEGALLY. Where the hell did you get your license, a cereal box? (Ed. note: Don’t worry. I gave back as good — nay, better! — as I got. Hell hath no fury like a Donna in the morning.)
Yours sincerely,
The pedestrian you tried to kill this morning.
So is an intersection without distinctly indicated pedestrian crossing signs/lines/markings still a crosswalk?
’tis. :)
There must be some conspiracy we don’t know about. But why mornings, I wonder.
I especially like it when they actually manage to hit me (well, lightly, but still, hello?).
I know that a lot of people don’t realize that even unmarked, it’s still a crosswalk. And hell, I have a hard enough time convincing cars to stop on 12th where there IS a crosswalk. I’d be more pushy about it, but I usually have my dog with me, and I’m not willing to risk her.
But to ARGUE with me about it? Seriously, she rolled down the window, and started yelling at me. Mostly, I just explained it (angrily, which probably didn’t help) and then kept telling her to “Look it up!” Oy. When she reached the next stop sign, she started going on about how “this is a stop sign, this is I’m supposed to stop”… so I told her maybe she should try to avoid trying to hit pedestrians, too. I think it was around there that I started calling her a crazy bitch…
On the upside, I really hope she DOES look it up. Maybe the encounter will have her learn something.
Not that you were probably in the state of mind to notice, but if you had noted her license plate #, you could probably contact ICBC to express your concerns and ask if they would send the driver a reminder about appropriate protocol at unmarked crosswalk zones.
Yeah, I thought of that later, but I was too bloody furious (and half asleep!) to think of it at the time. Alas. :)
Hmmmm that’s news to me. I would have called it jaywalking.
If there’s no crosswalk, no sign, and no lights blinking at me…I don’t stop. If someone’s already out on the road…I figure it’s their deathwish, but will slow down.
Since you’ve now travelled outside of N.A., you must realize that if you had tried that in ANY other country, even jolly old civil England, ppl would have sped up and you’d have been roadkill.
Doesn’t point b) only refer to highways and not urban streets? I really don’t know, but that’s how I’ve read it.
In this case, it was a residential neighbourhood, in a spot that had a stop sign going in one direction, and no stop sign in the other. That is *definitely* considered a crosswalk, markings or not.
The reason the act I quoted says highway is because roadways are generally covered by local bylaws more than the MVA. Regardless, the rules are the same.
From the Vancouver bylaws: “Crosswalk” means the portion of a roadway indicated for pedestrian crossing by lines or other markings and at other intersections means the portion of a roadway between the extension of the lateral edge of the roadway and the adjacent lateral property line, but does not include lane intersections.” (Ref: http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/bylaws/2849c.pdf)
Jaywalking is when you cross a road nowhere near an intersection or a marked crosswalk. This is also against bylaws (although, theoretically, you probably shouldn’t hit them anyway.) :) There’s no possible way that crossing the road at an intersection that doesn’t have a stop sign is EVER going to be considered jaywalking — what are we supposed to do, circle the block until we find a spot with a stop sign? uh, no! :) [edit: ok, save for obvious exceptions -- ie, when something specifically says "don't cross here, cross over there."]
There’s nothing about a stop sign, or a lack of one, that says “ignore pedestrians”. In BC, pedestrians ALWAYS have the right of way.
Incidentally… I first traveled outside North America when I was what, 14? I’m not exactly new to traveling. :) I know it’s not the same in other places. Regardless, that’s how it is here…. and anyone who has a license here should know that.