The power of the pedestrian here is really something else. Cars actually stop for you in crosswalks. Yup, they even anticipate your crossing the street and stop preemptively. I had a guy in a pick-up truck wave a sheepish apology to me with a guilty look on his face because he didn't adequately stop as I approached the curb. Civilized, sure, but I was thinking there must be some major fines to compel this kind of compliance.

Nice as this all is for pedestrians, it strikes me as vaguely dangerous as well, lulling people into a false sense of safety which would be destroyed in any other city where no such niceties apply. Like my own, for instance, where motorists go out of their way to try to run you over.

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