SPOKANE COUNTY, Wash. — We’ve all been driving before and seen someone waiting on the side of the road trying to cross the street.
A Spokane Reddit post raised the question: Do drivers have to stop for people trying to cross the road at places that aren’t intersections or crosswalks?
According to Washington State law, no, drivers do not legally have to stop.
The law notes that it could be dangerous for cars to stop for pedestrians to let them cross at undesignated areas. Other cars may not see the person in the road, and the pedestrian could end up trying to cross between moving lanes of traffic.
But drivers do have to yield to pedestrians at all crosswalks as well as intersections, whether they have marked crosswalks or not.
The law states that pedestrians have to yield at any other location.
Idaho laws state the same.