Should they start giving tickets to pedestrians who walk down the middle of the street?

When pedestrians become PESTestrians. When my sidewalk is icy sometimes pedestrians walk down the middle of the street. I would not give tickets, but rather a warning and education first.

All pedestrians, like it or not, have the right of way because their stupidity and their soft bodies cannot stand up to the solid steel, aluminum, plastic, and high speed of my awesome automobile.
I’d just as soon shoot ‘em but some people don’t like that…

They should be indeed ticketed for not walking on the far left facing traffic, unless the is a sidewalk, and in the middle of the road they should be fined with impeding traffic.

@kritiper it’s called jaywalking and can be ticketed.
If what you said was true they should be free to walk down the middle of a freeway.

Many, many, many years ago I had worked in a retail shop that the beat cop would drop in once or twice a month. He actually “pinched the stiff”, pedestrian that jay walked. The guy survived but had a broken pelvis.

What did he do to him?

The pedestrian received a ticket for jaywalking; while waiting for ambulance.

Insult to injury.

@Dutchess_lll I didn’t say it was legal.
You can’t run someone over just because they’re out there in traffic.

Of course you can’t. The point is if you do hit a pedestrian on accident who is outside marked pedestrian zones you can’t be sued unless it canbe proven you were recklessly negligent. Drunk or texting or whatever.

The problem is, there would have to be a cop there at that minute to have them ticketed.

I think if a lot of jaywalking is happening in a certain spot, then they should hand out some warnings. That will hopefully get around through the gossip train that they might start really ticketing.

I do think some people are completely clueless about crossing rules and laws, but most of us, even if aware, have dodged traffic in our life once or twice.

Pedestrians do have an obligation to participate responsibly on the road. If you run out in traffic, and get hit, the driver isn’t necessarily cited.

Also, the law expects everyone to use common sense. An accident must be avoided if at all possible.
And, it isn’t about if someone can be sued or not.
In the state where I live, pedestrians have the right of way, and the law tells you so. My Driver’s Ed. teacher told me that as well.
@Duchess III Call your local police department or talk to a officer you meet about who has the right-of-way where you are, and anywhere else.

Regardless of the ciecumstances, I dont need to tell you that if you hit one of them with your car, NOTHING good is gonna happen to you:

In FL a pedestrian has the right of way in a crosswalk. If there is no crosswalk, then the pedestrian is supposed to yield the right of way.

@stanleybmanly Well, the pedestrian might wind up dead. That’s why the law is not there to help her be stupid. Unless, that state has laws that say a pedestrian can do whatever the helm they want in the road. Of course, a driver needs to avoid an accident when possible, but what good is it to say at the pearly gates, “It was the driver’s fault, she should have seen me.”

You get hit walking in a parking lot, the driver is at fault. There aren’t walkways marked in parking lots.

And, while walking facing traffic is recommended because you never know when @SQUEEKY2 is going to run you down, it is not citeable and not a legal requirement.

And it really depends on where you are. Today in New Orleans I was walking in a lot of streets, and I go running in some streets in New York City. But that is not like walking on a country highway, or anywhere near @Dutchess_lll and her RVs.

^^ I only have one but I’ll run your ass over if you run in front of me and I can’t stop in time!

When Corrie had the twins in 2013 I took her older 2 kids up to the hospital in Wichita up and back to see her. (Pictures available upon request.)
On the way back from the hospital, as I was driving on out to the dark country, doing 60, crossing a bridge leading out of a small town, suddenly a human shape darted in front of my car and snatched something up and darted back.
In the instant I slammed on the brakes, processed it, I realized it was probably some idiotic teenager on a macho dare….and then they were gone.
Jesus I have never been so terrified and sick in my life for that second.
Whose fault was it?

I agree about the parking lot. It’s going to be the car cited. Parking lots have an assumption that people are walking every which way.

Interestingly, a friend of my mom’s got a ticket going the “wrong way down a one way” when she had a crash with a car in a parking lot, because she wasn’t following the arrows painted on the ground in a parking lot where the cars are parked at an angle and all traffic is supposed to be going one way.

In New York State, if you injure someone with your car, whether in an accident or hitting a pedestrian, the insurance of the driver is going to pay for the medical care of the victim. The insurance of the driver is going to go up.

If I’m a passenger in someone’s car and I’m not wearing a seatbelt, even though it’s the law that I had a seatbelt on, if I’m not wearing one, I will still get my medical care paid for by the driver’s insurance company. Then, after that, his insurance is going to go way up to cover that cost.

As far as suing for damages, to hear someone say “you can’t be sued” is incorrect. You can sue anybody for anything. It’s whether you will win that is up in the air. Whether you will win or not will depend on how good and how willing to fight the attorneys are, and if it goes to a judge or hearing officer, it’s up to him, or to a jury, it’s up to them. So saying “you can’t be sued” is incorrect and a total gamble.

Even if someone else was completely in the wrong, if you had the opportunity to avoid the accident and didn’t, then you are just as liable.
This is common knowledge,but completely off point.

I had a FB acquaintance post on FB about a year ago that she got cussed out by some lady in the parking lot for stepping in front of the lady’s moving car as she was crossing the parking lot. The lady screamed, “What’s wrong with you? You don’t step in front of a moving car! I almost didn’t see you!”
My acquaintance said, “Does she not know that pedestrians have the right of way?”
In other words, my acquaintances didn’t feel like it was her fault at all.

Far too many people think that pedestrians always have the right of way, so don’t take the common sense precautions that they should, like moving to the side.

Liability may be different from state to state. Also, many lawsuits are settled out of court, just as a bargaining meeting between attorneys (attorney for the defendant and attorney(s) for the plaintiff. It’s almost impossible to make blanket statements like this one is liable or that one is not liable or you can’t sue for that. It’s all a gamble.

Sigh. Still missing the point.

My only blanket statement is “Pedestrians do NOT have the right of way at all times.”

I get your point.
You firmly believe no one pedestrian automatically has the right of way.
I say the law (and common sense) says otherwise.
It isn’t about who could get sued, or who would have to pay for any injuries suffered. It’s about life and death, serious possibly crippling injury that the victim and the victim’s family would have to live with for an undetermined amount of time, possibly the rest of their natural lives.
Now, you don’t have to believe me…
You want to run them down?
Be my guest!

No you don’t get my point.
I said pedestrians do not have the right of way at all time and in all situations. Some people think they do. They don’t.

This has nothing to do with running people down deliberately, then claiming you had the right of way so you’re innocent.

Leave it to Fluther to take something so basic into the realm of the bizarre.

A thousand sources say you are wrong @kritiper.
Here

But DO we yield the right of way to pedestrians outside of cross walks? Most of us do, yes. It’s courtesy and common sense.

That’s the real difficulty. Regardless of any legal parameters around right of way, if your car is parked with you sitting in it, and some pedestrian thru lack of attention jogs smack into the side of your vehicle your degree of inconvenience and difficulty will be dictated by the extent of the pedestrian’s injuries. You would be better off were you altogether absent and the car was there alone.

In a parking lot I wait to cross in front of a car until they stop and acknowledge me. 19 times out of 20 they do just that, even tho they don’t “have” to.
However, I regularly have people walk in front of my moving car without so much as a glance because they think they have the right of way. That is just stupid IMO.