around the world: being a pedestrian

I have been writing lots of comparison posts in my head and haven't gotten the chance to write them (and I think it's only fair to give Germany a chance to throw its hat in the ring), but this evening we were reminded of a really big one: the differences in being a pedestrian.

All of this traveling has really affected our road behavior. The other day I caught myself in what we now call "pulling a South African." I was driving up 22, in front of the high school, when I saw a pickup truck trying to pass a slow-going tractor. The pickup was fully in the middle of the road, but hadn't actually started moving past the tractor yet. I eased over to the edge of the road to let the pickup through. But the pickup, of course, pulled back in behind the tractor as any sane American motorist would do. And that's when I realized I'd pulled a South African.

Much of the rest of the world takes a much more advisory notion of the word "lane" than we do in the West. In South Africa, everyone knew that there was enough room for a car to pass while there was oncoming traffic, just so long as everyone moved out of the way. So everyone moves out of the way any time a car wants to pass and it pretty much works out okay. Not so in Fairfield County.

But back to being a pedestrian. I'm pretty sure I already griped here about all of the death-dodging we did trying to walk around in Southeast Asia. Since we've been back we've both noticed that we keep jumping out into oncoming traffic, intending to wade our way through the way we did in SE Asia. I'm sure we're freaking people out. Then tonight we waited before stepping out (because you don't always jump out in front of a car--you have to learn to time it) and the car actually stopped and the driver motioned for us to cross!! What the?? What is this non-homicidal behavior?

And then we remembered that we were in Seattle, the city where a car will stop for anyone within a 20-foot radius of an intersection, whether they look like they want to cross the street or not. How civilized!