#RoadRights Situation 23
Pedestrian crossing without infrastructure
Play along! Did you guess correctly?
ANSWER: Drivers in both lanes need to see them and stop so they can cross.
Idaho has many places where people must cross busy, rural highways where there is no other option. In another situation, the person might step farther into the road to clearly establish they have the right of way but here it is too dangerous. It is the responsibility of those driving to be aware of someone wanting to cross and stop for them. They will also need to wait for the other lane of traffic to stop in order for the person to safely cross.
1 Comment
Chris Staley · July 21, 2021 at 8:06 pm
I’m not so sure – then again, I am a contrarian! In this case, yes, traffic is probably slow enough that someone coming to a dead stop won’t cause chain reaction rear-end collisions; on a higher speed road, such stopping could endanger many, including the pedestrian. This was obviously not a high-speed road and I would do exactly what she did – wait for adequate breaks in the traffic and cross. High-speed, high traffic, multi-lane highways are another case entirely. There is no safe option for crossing, which is why we bike/ped folks discourage these kind of roads near urban centers.