Killing people is apparently 100% legal in the US as long as you use a car to do it.
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She's not at fault because he was jaywalking. What a way to blame the victim. Also, why TF is jaywalking such a "thing" in the US?
Because most of the traffic laws are built around favoring cars over pedestrians, cyclists and public transit. The opposite of the common sense rules in most European countries.
Like many weird American things, there's an episode of The Dollop podcast exploring it. I think it's episode 193: When the Cars Came.
I feel like there might have been an episode of the Futility Closest about it too, but I can't find it.
Bruh only in the US will you get fined for doing so. Everywhere else, you're fine.
You say that, but I've jaywalked in front of cops countless times in different states and I've never had them so much as say anything to me.
I really don't think it's enforced very much. Then again, I am white..
Jaywalking shouldn't be fine anywhere.
If there's nothing coming, I'm not going to walk to the next crosswalk 200m away, I'm crossing where I am.
In many countries, jaywalking is perfectly legal. Drivers are expected to, you know, actually pay attention to the road and to not hit people.
In many other countries, 'jaywalking' is perfectly normal and legal outside of separated highways/motorways/throughways.
I don't think the question is why do Americans cross outside of crosswalks, but why is the idea that crossing outside of a crosswalk is a taboo so common in the US? Jaywalking being bad is so ingrained in America that many people don't even realize it's not a taboo internationally.
The answer, of course, is that initially people in the US were upset by drivers killing people. Because of that, the auto industry invented the term jaywalking and spent a lot of money and effort on victim blaming. They were quite successful in America, but weren't as successful in some other countries.
That's objectively paid off for the US auto industry. In the Netherlands, the initial pushback to drivers starting to kill more and more people, the "stop the child-murder" protests lead to the Netherlands becoming so bike friendly.
Reminds me of the partner of a US intelligence member who hit and killed a man in the UK and saw no repercussions. Vehicular manslaughter is becoming a top 10 US export.
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