Treatment of Pedestrians in the US: Late 1990's vs. Today

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I noticed a positive change in the US over the past 20 years. It's become a lot more socially acceptable to be a pedestrian, or to walk as a way of getting from point A to point B, rather than for exercise. When I was in high school, in late 90's thru early 2000's, walking outside anywhere other than city centers and parks was what I call "socially illegal". (That means you'll be hassled by other civilians, rather than the police.) Since I lived in a suburb, walking there was socially illegal. Almost always, I was the only pedestrian on the street. The "law" was "enforced" by drivers in passing cars: they verbally abused me, cursed at me, threw garbage at me, honked at me to scare me while I crossed the street, and if they didn't do any of that, they gave me dirty looks. Even on streets that actually had sidewalks. And when someone in my classes saw me walking to a public library, I became a laughingstock of the whole class.

All this was in the Midwest, a region developed mostly before the Automobile Age. I can only imagine what would have happened to me in a car-oriented state like California or Texas.

Today in 2015, it seems like that changed quite a bit. Sidewalks now actually get used, rather than acting as decorations. I now see quite a few people actually walking, even on a shoulders of a wide road that has no sidewalks to speak of. I did just that in South Florida, a car-oriented location famous for bad drivers, and nobody, and I mean nobody, on the road directed any abuse at me as a pedestrian. Well, they didn't yield to me when I was crossing the street at a stoplight, but still. Same thing were I live: I see people walking to and from work, grocery stores, clinics, etc., and drivers are a whole lot better. All that walking is something that would be flat-out unthinkable just 15 years ago. And it's not a dense urban area by any means.

Why the change? Is the mainstream society actually becoming more enlightened? Did the Great Recession from a few years ago shake up the society enough to suddenly make being a pedestrian actually OK? Is the Automobile Age on the way out?

Or was all the abuse directed at me simply because I used to "walk funny"? (whatever that means)

I think it's a cool observation. And accurate, too!

You'd probably have to depend on imagination because I never saw anything like that anywhere in Texas.

Not on Long Island it hasn't changed. Pedestrians/ car driver is quite like is quite like Autistic - Neurotypical relationships in who has the power and who doesn't. Street lights rarely give you enough time to cross unless you can can sprint. The lack of knowledge is similar also. Some people try and be nice and stop for you. But they are in the left lane and what would happen if I walk in front of them I would be run over and killed by a driver in the right lane who would see me to late so I wave them to go on and they get all mad. This has happened to me countless times. Also sometimes you have to step into the road to view oncoming traffic when the view is blocked by a parked car. That can result in a bunch of angry car horns. I don't think all the mobile phones and multitasking has helped matters.

As far as things thrown at you that is that can happen if you are walking alone on the sidewalk by a main road at night when the drunks are out.

LA is also car territory but it was the opposite when I was out there in the late '80's. By law drivers had to let pedestrians cross first. Of course I did not realize this so it resulted in me and drivers staring at other not moving for minutes at time until I figured it out.

Maybe it depends on where you are, my mom grew up sort of around where I live now and as far as I can tell walking places was pretty normal, she has plenty of stories that involve walking places....she walked to school, to friends houses and never mentioned any issues with that specifically. As for what I have noticed as I walk places and take the bus....is its a good idea to be aware of traffic some people don't get the concept of the pedestrian crossing light...when people try to ignore it I point it out and then walk even slower to make a point. Though one time I am convinced someone tried to hit me late at night, that was creepy but it could be they where not paying attention, either way they came close enough I had to jump out of the way. I haven't had people yell mean things at me, on occasion people honk for no other reason I can tell than to scare me or maybe I just don't see what is being honked at but I've jumped due to loud sudden honking.

I know when I was in highschool, people probably looked down on me for walking places....as I am sure classmates saw me from time to time, most of them where in wealthy enough families to afford a car, I guess in retrospect its not like they alone had the money to afford it from diligent hard work....parents helped them all, but mine where too broke not that I would make a very good driver anyways. But it wasn't that I walked it was I was poor enough I had to walk...on occasion I got out of the small isolated town to go to the city if I went with my mom, or got dropped off at my cousins or went there with my sister and her boyfriend at the time who drove..other then that I walked to the Library and Gas station as something to do.

One time someone threw a half full beer can at me and some people I was walking with, I threw it back at their car...then got kinda freaked out that they might come back and cause some kind of harm so I and the others quickly vacated the area. I was also tripping on mushrooms at the time, not sure I would have thrown it back at them if I hadn't been but maybe.

I think due to global warming and the fact our economy had been suffering and gas prices had been soaring high, people are finding efficient ways to get to places.

I have had people shout out their car window at me as they drive by or honk but I don't take it personally. I think it's just random and some people are just immature. Even on the train someone will knock on the window to get my attention and then they run off before I see who.

In my area they have been putting in light rails and they have installed bike lanes and buses have a place for people to put their bikes on and the light rails have a spot for them too. They are trying to fight congestion and to have less cars on the road. I wonder if we will become London by charging people to use their road of they wish to use their car. We already have traffic ramps installed where the light turns green letting one car on the freeway at a time and it only happens during rush hour to keep traffic flowing.

Sadly, it was almost never random in my case. I lived in a semi-isolated suburb, most of which was covered by my high school district. The direct route I walked on frequently got used by kids from my classmates to get to a nearby shopping mall. So when someone shouted out their car window, it was almost always directed specifically at me. In order to get to the library safely without the shouting incidents, I had to go about a mile out of my way on a busy road, then along some abandoned train tracks, then through a tired-looking shopping area that only the elderly really went to. The train tracks ran through another school district where nobody knew me. That added up to more than two extra miles of unnecessary walking. I can only imagine how much nicer things were for pedestrians back when those tracks actually had trains running on them.

If someone knocked on the train window, it wouldn't bother me; I'd even laugh it off. Knowing what kind of shady characters often find their way onto public transportation, I'd know it's someone being stupid and leave it at that. But these actions from passing cars are really frightening.

Two or three years ago, another thing happened that practically stopped all abuse of pedestrians. My state repealed some of its concealed carry restrictions for handguns. Throwing an object from a moving vehicle is considered using a weapon (not unlike drive-by shootings), which makes it legal for pedestrians to respond in kind. And I guess drivers are also hesitant to yell insults at a pedestrian, fearing he'd "overreact", even if the target has weak body language. I don't own a weapon, but the law still works in my favor when I do any walking on city streets.

Keep in mind that adults generally act differently than kids. I can see where kids would be more likely to rag on another kid walking anywhere but once adults, they wouldn't be likely to rag on other adults walking.

The other day I was walking from the local grocery store back to my office (we have a pretty decent kitchen at the office and whenever I'm at the office, I generally cook my own food. Someone I didn't recognize saw me walking and pulled over to give me a ride. At that point, I was only about 100 feet from the office so I had to decline.

Some cute guy pulled over just to ask me if I wanted a ride. I declined because the stop I was going to was right across the street. I thought it was very strange because he was a stranger. He could have been a predator for all I know. Then there was another man who came up to me while I was asking asking me if I have ever posed before and then he was gone just like that when I said no. Then later I saw him again in his car in the school parking lot and he called me over and asked me if I would like to earn money to pose. It was very weird and he could have been someone who was looking for a pregnant woman to kill to get the baby out of her stomach for another woman. I get paranoid thoughts I know because of all these stories I have heard on TV about people hunting down pregnant women and cutting babies from their stomachs and people getting kidnapped after being offered a ride and bad stuff just happening because of someone being naive. All these people are hoping to find someone who is gullible and naive so they may pick out a random person and hope they get what they want.

In my case, I'm a 60 year old male and the guy who offered the ride was maybe about 90.

People walk now for one simple reason: Gas prices skyrocketed after 9/11, and people haven't been able to afford cars, let alone gas with the economy in the sh*tter, so people have no choice but to walk to their destination.

Society doesn't change because of enlightenment, there's no such thing as societal enlightenment, society changes because people suddenly find themselves in the same situation as those they made fun of or blindly hated in the first place, so they shut the h*ll up about it because otherwise they'd be hypocrites, and people in society care more about their public image than anything.
When/if the economy recovers (which, it won't), or if gas prices become affordable again, the trend of blindly hating pedestrians will return as fierce as ever. The problem will never go away, as we've seen other "extinct" issues being resurfaced as being proof that it won't.

lol...I was not aware of this.

In Portland, most pedestrians are treated like dirt, mostly by cyclists who think that just because they are cyclists, they think of themselves as better than everyone else. In the summer, there are a series called "Sunday Parkways" in which a stretch of road is closed to cars so pedestrians and cyclists can use them. I do participate in most of the "Sunday Parkways", but like many fellow pedestrians, cyclists {and pro-cyclists who are not actually cyclists}, I want to punch someone who calls pedestrians "society's biggest joke."

The responses I'm getting so far are interesting. It almost like the Midwest is a most improved region when it comes to treating pedestrians with respect or at least begrudging tolerance, rather than aggressive contempt. All I know is when I do any walking now, drivers pretty much tune me out, rather than taking time to make my life miserable.

I was surprised to not get a barrage of abuse from passing cars when walking on the shoulder of a road in a Florida city. It always struck me as a pedestrian-hostile state. But even two high school girls, who pulled up to an entrance of a Waffle House right when I was walking toward it, not only didn't give me crap for not having driven there, but held the door for me. Although, it's possible they figured out I was a tourist (lack of a tan?), and "forgave" my walking.

With that said, I'm still afraid to travel to California or Texas, at least not without renting a car or even an SUV.