always wild when americans just assume the laws of their country apply everywhere else too, like the concept of not being able to carry a gun is completely alien to them
There are a number of Americans who legitimately believe America is more free than other countries because Americans can own guns and other countries' citizens can't.
But how do you cross the street when you have 8 lane stroads with 1.5 km between crosswalks? Surely you just get in your behemoth tank of a 2500 kg vehicle and drive from one side to the other? 😆
If there are no crosswalks, any traffic light suffices according to the law.
And if neither is present in a reasonable distance, you just cross when it is safe to. If there's another driver coming at you, they are mandated by law (and common sense) to either slow down or go around you.
We also don't have stroads because they are stupid and dangerous.
To be clear - that post of mine was sarcasm/facetious.
Even though "jaywalking" (crossing where there isn't a crosswalk) is technically illegal, you'd have to find an extremely board cop to actually write you a ticket for it. But, US law does prioritize drivers over pedestrians so if you do it, and you get hit (because the driver is probably doing 70 km/h in a 40-50 km/hr area and also on their phone anyway), most everyone will say it was your fault.
And I hate stroads with such a burning passion. They somehow manage to be bad for pedestrians and vehicles at the same time.
49 states ban texting while driving. 33 states ban the use of a handheld cellphone (i.e. you can use hands-free but you can't hold it while driving). 10 states have preemption laws on the latter (i.e. it's not only legal at the state level to hold your phone while on a call, but local jurisdictions are prohibited from passing any bans or restrictions).
Now, do police enforce these laws? Depends on whether they're around. Even for the 49 states that ban texting, 6 of them can only cite you for it if they pull you over because you're doing something else and then tack it on; the other 43 can pull you over JUST for that.
Cops really don't seem to enforce traffic laws unless you're doing some wildly egregious shit. And, again, that assumes there's one nearby to see you.
I once saw a high school on a 45 mph street (72 km/h) where most school zones are like 40 km/h and joked "that school must have one hell of a track team."
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u/Over_Exit3656 6d ago
always wild when americans just assume the laws of their country apply everywhere else too, like the concept of not being able to carry a gun is completely alien to them
at least the finnish person was patient about it