Ok, exactly what IS the rule/law?

[Cataholic]

Ok, you brought up another point and I'm glad you did. What about crosswalks? We don't have them here except in strip malls or downtown in cities and I hardly if ever have the need to go there. If a car is moving (slowly, I hope) and it's already partially through a cross walk, pedestrians here think we should stop a several ton moving vehicle for them. I stop before the crosswalk but if there are no pedestrians, obviously I keep going but I have had pedestrians run to get through and I've had to slam on my brakes even though I'm driving slowly. A couple of years ago a man, holding his wife's hand, decided to walk through while I was driving. I kept going thinking that he'd realize I had to but he didn't and he stopped right in front of my car. I got out of my car and he and his wife ran inside the store so that tells me that he knew he was wrong. I see mothers doing this w/their toddlers a lot and I just wonder why they feel the necessity to take such a risk w/their childrens' precious lives. What say you?

ETA: I forgot to mention here that the reason I got out of my car is because after he stopped in front of it, he actually punched the hood of my car!

Well, in this part of Ohio we have crosswalks. I walk a lot, and I can tell you that 95% of the time people do NOT stop for me at a crosswalk, or in a crosswalk. I can be with my son in a stroller, and people fly by as if I am invisible. The worst offenders? Middle-aged caucasian women- by far.

My friend and I were out walking in March and each had our child in a jogger, and she had two dogs flanking her jogger. We were- no flipping lie- on the corner, AT a crosswalk, in plain view of a police cruiser....not one car stopped. I said something to the cop and he said, "we have no law to enforce that". WHAT? WHAT? You lazy cop....

I cannot understand people in cars that think they have this "right" to ignore others on or about the roadway. You would think they would slow it down, and grant the right of way, especially when in all but the most unusual circumstances they would be found at fault.

[Medusa]

As I said, downtown there are crosswalks but I don't go there at all. I'm talking about crosswalks in strip malls that pedestrians decide to cross when a car is halfway through it. I always give pedestrians the right of way but if they're nowhere near the crosswalk, for ex., walking from their parked cars toward it, I slowly inch my car through. Inevitably, though, a pedestrian will decide to run in front of my car, many times not even in the crosswalk and then decide to do a dead stop and stare at me, challenging me. I still don't understand why a mother holding her toddler's hand or pushing one in a stroller would take such a chance but I see it a lot.