Aaron Parecki

There are no "approaching cars". THEY HAVE A RED LIGHT. If you go into every intersection assuming the person (be they car/bike/pedestrian) will run the traffic signal they have, then all road safety breaks down. This is 100% the fault of the driver who ran the red!

Well that's ridiculous. I know people who have been sideswiped by vehicles changing lanes without looking/going too far. In your statement, leaving the house is effectively unsafe, because you can do everything right and 'safely' and someone else's mistake can still injure you.

Not one single person in this group was paying attention to approaching cars. All of them were looking forward with tunnel vision.

I will admit to nothing of the sort. When I teach people pedestrian/bicycle safety I tell them that "You, and only you, are 100% responsible for your safety. If you get hit by a car, regardless of who was wrong or right, you were not being safe"

Most of them start flashing red while pedestrians are in the crosswalk. That tells those that aren't in the crosswalk not to cross and for those in the crosswalk to finish crossing.

I've seen a few crossing lights that turn to flashing red before pedestrians have enough time to cross roads in the Portland area. It is almost like traffic engineers widen the roads to allow more vehicles, but forget to adjust the timer for people to safely cross a wider road.