Germany has a general speed limit of 50 km/h in cities -- which seems to be pretty much a universal standard world wide --, and 30 km/h in many residential neighbourhoods. In some residential neighbourhoods there's a speed limit of walking speed and pedestrians enjoy permanent right of way. There are some people who're lobbying for the general speed limit in cities to be dropped to 30 km/h (safer, less noise), but sadly we're not there yet.
And crossing a street when there's no light and no zebra crossing is not jaywalking - that's just crossing the street, and it's the legal way to do it as typically there is no light or a crossing around. And of course many people jaywalk all the time. I don't even but the think of the children argument -- if a kid is responsible enough to walk around in public traffic, they ought to be responsible enough to judge whether crossing a red light is safe, otherwise how would they deal with cases where there is no light? But I might be kidding myself there, and I usually don't jaywalk when there's kids around out of politeness if nothing else.
The thing is that not all streets are created equal. On particularly dangerous corners there will be lights, and cars can come around the corner going maybe a bit too fast to stop, so it's important to obey them. When there is no light, that's usually indicative of a less busy street as well, where crossing at your own discretion is safer.
As always, know you routes. It't arguably safe to cross 3rd tier roads with hindsight, yet anything higher in traffic hours is simply not worth it.
For the typical pedestrian commute through Berlin you don't even have to cross a significant number of lights, if any at all, when traveling by means of U&S-Bahn and know which side of the station you have to exit on.
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Germany has a general speed limit of 50 km/h in cities -- which seems to be pretty much a universal standard world wide --, and 30 km/h in many residential neighbourhoods. In some residential neighbourhoods there's a speed limit of walking speed and pedestrians enjoy permanent right of way. There are some people who're lobbying for the general speed limit in cities to be dropped to 30 km/h (safer, less noise), but sadly we're not there yet.
And crossing a street when there's no light and no zebra crossing is not jaywalking - that's just crossing the street, and it's the legal way to do it as typically there is no light or a crossing around. And of course many people jaywalk all the time. I don't even but the think of the children argument -- if a kid is responsible enough to walk around in public traffic, they ought to be responsible enough to judge whether crossing a red light is safe, otherwise how would they deal with cases where there is no light? But I might be kidding myself there, and I usually don't jaywalk when there's kids around out of politeness if nothing else.
The thing is that not all streets are created equal. On particularly dangerous corners there will be lights, and cars can come around the corner going maybe a bit too fast to stop, so it's important to obey them. When there is no light, that's usually indicative of a less busy street as well, where crossing at your own discretion is safer.
As always, know you routes. It't arguably safe to cross 3rd tier roads with hindsight, yet anything higher in traffic hours is simply not worth it.
For the typical pedestrian commute through Berlin you don't even have to cross a significant number of lights, if any at all, when traveling by means of U&S-Bahn and know which side of the station you have to exit on.