A Warning For Germans Visiting The USA

In Germany you have to stop in front of a crosswalk and let people pass. It's a law! This rule just counts for "Zebrastreifen". The white stripes crosswalk.

A very old joke in Brazil goes like this: A man tries to cross a large road in Sao Paolo. After quite a few trials in vain during which he nearly gets run over numerous times, he becomes aware of a man on the opposite side of the road and shouts across: "How did you get there ?" Answer: "I was born here."

True for Germany and central Europe, but as a tourist in southern Italy, I finally understood, why they have so many churches. It's for pedestrians to pray before and after crossing the road.

Actually, driving over a Zebra without letting pedestrians cross first is just as if you ran a red light or a stop sign. You can get fined, loose your license when observed by police and if an accident happens, the driver is 100% at fault.

I’m from Slovenia. We are taught in driving school that the pedestrian has the right of way the moment they step on the crosswalk with one foot. So it’s not up to the discretion of the driver. We are legally required to stop. And since all drivers in Europe are also pedestrians at some point, we expect cars to stop for us, and therefore it makes sense to stop for others as well. Even if it wasn’t required (but it is)

The likelyhood is not 4 times higher: It is much higher, as the sheer number of pedestrians in Germany is significantly higher than in the US. People in Germany walk - US Americans drive (usually because they have to). Basically: If in Germany the percentage of pedestrians is only twice the percentage of the US (or the number of minutes spent walking is twice the number of US citizens), the likelyhood of dying is not 4 times as high - it's 8 times as high.

As a German currently living in the south of Italy I know that you don't have to travel as far as the US to fear for your life while crossing the road :D. Here the most important rule for cars seems to be that stopping must be avoided at all costs, and the faster you drive at a zebra crossing, the less likely you are to stop...

I’m a German living in the US for two years and the number of times I got honked at by people behind me when I stopped for a pedestrian waiting at a crosswalk is insane. I always make sure tho to wait a little longer , just for them :)

Very interesting content and good and important warning. As a Brazilian living in Germany I recognized three aspects of your crossing (because I also do them) that showed you are a foreigner: 1) you hesitate to step on the road when you see a car (as you yourself mentioned). 2) you raised your hand in appreciation as if the driver was doing you a favor. Most of Germans also thank you for stopping with their hands and/or a smile, but they know that the driver is NOT doing them a favor, they thank you because they are being nice. 3) you hushed to cross the street as if not wanting to bother the driver longer than you have to. Germans walk normally, which is usually a brisk pace anyway, but make no extra effort to get out of the way faster. I guess that all drivers, as pedestrian, understand the significance of safety to them, their relatives and anyone else, and do not feel bothered when stopping as many times as needed for pedestrians and bikes. One other reason being that, if you don't act this way you never get your driver's license here. 😄

I still feel the whiplash from my driving instructor slamming our breaks, when I wanted to drive across a crosswalk. Still in shock, I asked him "W- Wait - Was anybody on that crosswalk?" and his response was "No. But the fact that you're asking, means you didn't look properly." I couldn't stand him in that moment, but he was absolutely right. 😂

It's even more radical in Germany. A few days ago, I dreamt a little while driving down the road. I didn't recognize a pedestrian at a crosswalk. Luckily the young man was more alert than I was and didn't step into the street. When I saw him while I was passing by, I felt so bad that I needed to stop and apologised to him for my dangerous driving. He was nice enough to accept my apologies, and I felt okay again. 100% true story.

Stopping and letting pedestrians pass is theoretically not up to the driver, they have to stop by law. Of course many still don't, even in Germany, it just depends where you are. Apparently Schwäbisch Hall is a pretty safe place in that regard, or people wouldn't do it. I would certainly never trust all the random maniacs on the street to stop for me without looking. :x

Its an actual traffic law in Germany. Cars HAVE to stop at crosswalks if theres people wanting to cross.

In my opinion, the weakest road users should always be the kings. When I use a vehicle, I should always be considerate of others.

Loved how you raised your hand to thank the driver for letting you cross the crosswalk - like a real German 😂🤌🏼

In Austria, there’s no such thing as “driver’s discretion” when it comes to pedestrian crossings. When there are no traffic lights, the driver is legally obliged to stop as soon as a pedestrian shows the intention to cross. The number of pedestrians killed in the US seems even larger when taking into account that, except for the larger cities, most people don’t walk in the US.

This actually has a reason (both why pedestrians have to look out for cars and why many US cities are built for cars nor people): In the Us when cars started to become more popular they actually got a LOT of protest from people living in cities particularly as the first injuries and deaths occured due to increasing trafic. So the the automakers actually spend GIANT ammounts of money and lobbying to invent 'jaywalking'. A previously non existant crime that put the blame (both legally but most importantly morally) on the pedestrian. The market campaign essentially said that only uneducated country bumpkins would not pay attention to cars and it WORKED. To this day cars have the basic right to drive mostly how they want and if someone gets hit it's their fault for 'being in the road' (that belongs to the cars)! This is btw. a very tried and true tactic by (US) coprorations: shift the responsibility on the individual so they can keep doing what they want. 'Jaywalking' created by car companies. 'Littering' created by plastic manufacturers. 'Carbon Footprint' created by BP. etc. Why fix a problem when we could just instead maximize profits and shift the blame onto others and when the consequences hit I'll have my bonus already 😕 I wish it was only conspiracy 🙁

In germany, crosswalks are legally binding. As a driver, you are supposed to drive slowly and carefully near them because you are quite literally required by law to let pedestrians pass through. Of course, pedestrians are still encouraged to look both ways, but fundamentally, if a driver hits a pedestrian on a crosswalk it's the same as if they hit a person after ignoring a red light.

I live on a small island in Denmark where about 80% of the cars most of the year are from Germany, because of tourism. And it is so nice to be able to accurately predict whether a car will wait for me or drive through (Germans almost always wait and Danish people almost always drive through).

In my time living in the US particularly in CA in 1960th it was actually the other way around, California drivers behaved like Germans do nowadays whilst traffic in Germany was still vastly Wild West-like. Cities didn’t have speed limits then, imagine that.