One of the most time-consuming decisions I make every day is deciding when to cross the street. No one really follows the traffic laws around here, so even if you’re crossing legally, with the light, someone might still bear down on you like you don’t exist.
So when can you actually go?
Obviously, when there’s a break in traffic. But that’s not the case 90 percent of the time. My second day here I misjudged the distance of an oncoming car and got so scared, I froze in the middle of the street, like a deer in headlights. Luckily the guy let me go.
Lately I’ve done this weird half-hesitation, half-step-into-the-street thing, and I think it just makes people nervous. Drivers slow down and look at me like, “What the hell are you doing?” I’ve also tried following other people, but sometimes they’re maniacs who step in front of moving cars. (Sorry, can’t do that yet.) Crayton says you just have to cross at the slightest gap in traffic, and that you can’t hesitate or they’ll run you over. I say: You do your thing, I’ll do mine.
Funnily enough, on my apartment search today, I was chatting with the broker about how I’m too scared to drive in Mexico City. She said, half-joking: “Oh no, walking is much more dangerous.”
I worked in Mexico City several times about 10 years ago, I noticed that when pedestrians crossed the road in front of stopped cars at crosswalks, the drivers would rev their engines and inch forward as if threatening them, warning them that they better not dare remain in the crosswalk when the light changed! I loved Mexico City, we met a tour guide named Roberto who we paid to drive us to work and back to the hotel, dinner etc.