We do a lot of walking around the neighborhood with kids, which usually involves some people getting to intersections a while before others. I'm not worried about even the youngest going into the street on their own—Nora's been street trained for about a year—but we have to be careful about what signals we send to cars. Someone standing at an intersection facing traffic looks to a driver like they're waiting for the opportunity to cross.

Waving drivers to continue doesn't work well: they tend to slow down significantly, and many of them will wave back in a misguided attempt at "no, you first" politeness. Instead, what seems to work well is turning your back to the street:

This isn't perfect: some drivers still read anyone stationary near an intersection as intending to cross, but it's pretty good. And [...]

The original text contained 1 image which was described by AI.

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First published:
July 17th, 2024

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/FJokhnaYjEbcHLusJ/turning-your-back-on-traffic

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Turning Your Back On Traffic” by jefftk

LessWrong (30+ Karma)