I’m in Paris right now and have been a few times in the past. At this point I usually just walk around the city, not doing many touristy things, but I think there’s one thing that Parisians see in me and think; “Yeah, she’s not from here”. I don’t cross the road on the red light, like most people here. It could be just a Paris thing (and not a French one), but I was wondering what it looks like in other countries?
I think in Poland we’re pretty strict on only crossing on the green light, with only a people being in such a hurry that they can’t wait for it to change.
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I would say it’s quite strict in here Finland too. Even if you couldn’t see cars at all, you usually wait until it’s green. Some ppl cross the road, but it’s mainly ppl who are not born in Finland/tourists.
If there are lights at the crosswalk (which isn’t always the case) then everyone respects that the cars have the right of way when the pedestrian light is red.
But when there are no cars in sight, it’s very common (and generally not frowned upon) to cross the road at your own risk. Most places in Norway don’t have a lot of traffic outside of rush hour, so empty roads are very common even in the cities, and there’s really no point to just stand around and wait for nothing.
lights are used when there are cars to switch the priority between cars and people
If there are no cars, or if the cars are far enough away that you can easily make it, then you just cross regardless of what the light is on
Mostly a Germanic/Romanic divide, with a criteria of proximity, with the extremes probably being Netherlands and Italy.
I’ve seen Dutch people waiting in the middle of the night with no cars in sight (ad it’s a very flat place) and Italians jumping onto the road, cars be damned.
I can only speak for my city, but in my experience most people don’t cross the street with a red light.
It’s much more common to cross where there is no car around – regardless of the colour – or when there is a yellow light. This is usually a necessity, as with some traffic lights it is physically impossible (unless you sprint) to cross in time. Sometimes it stops being green after three or four steps.
I’d say it applies to France in general, I do it as well, but Parisians are probably more reckless about it.
I behave myself a lot more when I’m in Germany because I’ve gotten some dirty looks before.
Austrians don’t seem to joke around with it either, I had a car honk at me for crossing a road despite the car being meeeeters away.
I just came back from the Netherlands and I don’t know if it’s the case everywhere in the country, but in Den Haag, pushing on the button to signal we want to cross a road makes the light turn green so quick that there wasn’t much need for crossing the roads like a savage.
In Spain lights are a suggestion. At least where I live. The Netherlands completely different. I get the impression Dutch people start walking before the car even stops at the light. Anyways they have a button to press so they tend to respect it