[joedev]

You forgot one type of person. "People who wait for the walk sign because they've got other things on their mind and make the conscious choice to leave deciding when to cross the street up to the street light." Waiting for the light lets you cross the street with hardly any thought at all, freeing that thought up to do other things.

These people realize you can only do so many tasks so why not delegate the least value-added (what are you going to gain by earning 15 seconds) of the tasks to someone - or something - else? It's a no-stress, win-win to give yourself one less thing to worry about.

[wr1472]

I was about to say the exactly the above.

    People who evaluate the situation for themselves and cross on their own terms

What if you are someone who has evaluated the situation and decided that you will wait for the sign, or you will just cross as other people are doing so? How can you tell when someone has evaluated the situation and exhibited on of the above behaviours?

[alwaysdoit]

Now that we've read his post, if we follow his guidelines, we're back to being a follower.

[ojbyrne]

He also forgot "people who have been fined or otherwise hassled for jaywalking, and therefore think twice about crossing when the light is against them."

[mrbogle]

I came in here to say this. People are multi-faceted. They can be risk-averse in one area, but risk-taking in another. I suspect there are better indicators on someone's nature than how they cross the street. IMO, just how they carry themselves is probably a better indicator than whether or not they wait for the light to cross.

[pc86]

Think of the kind of person for whom deciding whether or not to cross the street is so mentally taxing that it's a net gain to not.

Those are not the kind of people for whom that extra brain power will do any good.