Today I Learned

In my small town cars and pedestrians just kinda share the street. Like we take a look at each other and whoever seems to be the most in a hurry goes first. There's very few traffic lights and crossings. Also very few cars and people, lol.

But back when I lived in a huge city, there was this big commercial street where traffic lights were literally ignored. A car would slowly threaten to run the pedestrians over until they stopped crossing, then the other cars would follow until enough pedestrians started threatening to get run over by the cars, then everyone would follow, and that was it, traffic was controlled by pedestrians' willingness to die vs drivers' willingness to kill them.

Worth mentioning that this only worked because that street was so crowded that at certain times of the year you could get an actual pedestrian jam, like the entire street filled with people, barely able to move, and more people constantly arriving.

Also, whenever police showed up, all the unlicensed street merchants would pack up their carts and run through the middle of the street so police wouldn't steal their merch, cars were just expected to stop for them. Which was weird because the street was always full of regular cops, but there was this special type of cop whose only job was to steal merch from unlicensed merchants. The regular cops just ignored them.

I never understood why cars were allowed on that street, nor why drivers kept using it instead of taking a detour. Needless to say, moving away from that shithole of a city did wonders for my mental (and physical) health.