It is my experience that in Massachusetts cities (and even semi-urban towns), only attempting to cross if you will make it without the cars slowing down is only possible when waiting for the light. If you wait for the light, you then have the luxury of only attempting to cross if no car will interrupt you at its current speed and heading. Enough drivers treat red lights as guidelines that pedestrians must assume that all drivers will, so this is a nontrivial requirement. (I’d say ‘imagine NYC except everyone’s a taxi driver’, but last I was in NYC that was nearly true already.)
It’s unwise and uncommon to go full Schelling—i.e. performatively blindfolding yourself and then walking backwards into traffic—and it is normal and advisable to leave substantial safety margin, probably 3x-5x the technical minimum stopping distance, rather than assume they will detect it instantly. But you essentially must have to dare them to blink first, or you’ll never get to cross.
It is my experience that in Massachusetts cities (and even semi-urban towns), only attempting to cross if you will make it without the cars slowing down is only possible when waiting for the light. If you wait for the light, you then have the luxury of only attempting to cross if no car will interrupt you at its current speed and heading. Enough drivers treat red lights as guidelines that pedestrians must assume that all drivers will, so this is a nontrivial requirement. (I’d say ‘imagine NYC except everyone’s a taxi driver’, but last I was in NYC that was nearly true already.)
It’s unwise and uncommon to go full Schelling—i.e. performatively blindfolding yourself and then walking backwards into traffic—and it is normal and advisable to leave substantial safety margin, probably 3x-5x the technical minimum stopping distance, rather than assume they will detect it instantly. But you essentially must have to dare them to blink first, or you’ll never get to cross.