The Crosswalk

Walking to work yesterday, as happens everyday, I came to this intersection:

As you can see, I have to go across the intersection and under the elevated train tracks (just east of where I live the train ventures underground and becomes part of the Seoul subway system).  It's not a long walk, just 12 minutes or so.

Yesterday, as happens almost everyday, I was waiting on the little "island" in the picture for the light to change and the "green man" to pop up. Since I have walked this route hundreds of times, I know the lights,
and I know when the signals are about to change.

Just before they were due to change, the cars stopped flowing; there was no oncoming traffic.  The only cars around were a few stopped at the red light to the left, but I didn't even glance at them, since they wouldn't be able to move before the pedestrian signal had turned green, held, and then gone back to red.

So, no cars, the light was about to change, the green man was due to appear in a few seconds, and there were no other people around.

I stepped out onto the crosswalk and started to cross the street.

That's when I heard the police siren, flipped on for a second, just to get attention.

My heart flipped in response, and my head jerked to the left: one of the cars stopped at the light of the "empty" intersection was a police car.

I kept walking but thought, "Shit!  Busted!  Are they going to do something about it?", for I was the only pedestrian around and was clearly jaywalking (all rationalizations aside) directly in front of officers of the law (more about that in a minute).

I played it cool and kept going, and, in the end, nothing happened.

Upon relating the incident to my foreign co-workers, a short discussion of jaywalking ensued, and it brought back memories of being newly arrived in Korea and asking other expats about the crosswalking rules here in Korea.

What became noticeable to me shortly after arriving in a smallish city in Korea was that most people strictly obeyed crosswalk signals, to the point of  . . . well, let me give you an example.

A friend told me about an incident where he had to cross a street to get to a bank to use an ATM machine. There was a small group of Koreans waiting for the signal to change, but it happened that the street was under repair and so it was blocked off; the signals were working, yet there were no cars.  There could be no cars.  The street was blocked.

So my friend crossed with the red man flashing, went in to use the ATM, came back out, and recrossed with the red man still flashing.  The group of pedestrians were still waiting for the signal to change, and may have given him a few dirty looks.

He, on the other hand, was incredulous that they would demonstrate such blind obedience to the law.  He felt it was absurd that they would follow a signal meant to protect them from cars when there were no cars and could be no cars.

I have not seen that extreme of a situation, but I have been standing at an active intersection without traffic, and I have felt the need to make a decision about whether to follow the letter of the law or whether to follow common sense.

Where I live there seem to be primarily two groups of people: those who seem to be in a hurry and will jaywalk, and those who obey the signal.

If I am at a crosswalk and a mother is there with her young children, and they are waiting for the signal, then I will also wait as 1) I am a teacher and want to be a positive role model for kids, and 2) I don't want to give a bad impression of foreigners.

In other situations, however, it is silly to wait for the signal.  When I walk home, for example, there is a crosswalk signal that is improperly timed, and turns red when it is still safe to walk, as the perpendicular traffic has not ceased.  So I usually go ahead and cross, but, again, not if I think there might be some negative influences or perceptions.

I could go just down the street, however, to the bus stop, where there is no intersection and no crosswalk, and cross when other people due, using just good sense and eyesight; out of sight of a crosswalk different rules apply since there is no real "law" to follow.

At busy intersections clearly everyone waits.  At small sidestreets no one does.

The fact that many Koreans choose to--or are conditioned to--follow the law is overall a good thing, I think, and reflects what is, for the most part, a law-abiding society.  Korea is generally safe and clean, more so than most cities in America, and I respect that aspect of life here.

But sometimes jaywalking is ok, though I will look out for police cars in the future.