I was extremely nervous about biking on roads (and still am not at ease by any stretch of the imagination), but it’s getting easier because of the respect that everyone shows for each other.
Cars yield to pedestrians AND to bikes that have the right of way, bikes yield to pedestrians, bikes and pedestrians obey the laws.
I’ve gotten to intersections at the same time as cars trying to make left turns and they get confused if I don’t step off the curb because, after all, I have a walk signal. Same is true on streets where there isn’t a light. It goes against all my years of living in NoVa to trust them (in Sterling I was once almost hit by a car making a right on red - they didn’t bother to check the crosswalk) but they get indignant when I don’t.
Same is true on a bicycle. Bikes are everywhere and cars watch for them. I get nervous if I’m going straight across an intersection and I see a car with a left turn signal on - but the cars yield.
Jaywalking is extremely uncommon - and almost never done such that a car would have to slow down or stop if it has the right of way.
To give you an idea of how deep the respect for the law: there were some 11-13 year old kids riding their bikes (they were on the sidewalk, but it’s a really busy stretch of road) and I heard their brakes squeal as they got to an intersection just as the “green man” (walk signal) turned red. How many American kids would have just barrelled on through knowing they had plenty of time before the traffic lights actually changed?
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