Look both ways.

travel.stackexchange.com/q/20791/3221

@pnuts when I'm in the UK I generally look both ways repeatedly at around twice the rate of looking back and forth I use in New York City (my home). This seems to work fairly well (and better than a once-in-each-direction look which is often in the wrong order).

@phoog I'm UK based so 'ease up' a bit locally since traffic behaviour is fairly predictable (except for electric cars) but almost everywhere abroad there can be vehicles (particularly two-wheeled ones) that will drive on the road (and pavements) in either direction. There is no solution other than to stay exceedingly alert.

For countries that drive on right side, check your left side first. For countries that drive on left side, check your right side first. In any case, remember to look both ways before stepping on the road.

I'm curious how it even matters what site the cars are driving. As long cars drive in both directions you will allways miss 50% when jsut looking into 1 direction. Or what am I missing here?

@Zaibis Question is in which direction you look first (and how to force yourself to really do it). If you don't pay attention, you could already (semi-automatically) step on the road before glancing in the other direction.

Op you already live in a country with fairly aggressive driving. I don't know how you don't have this habit of looking both ways before crossing. I live in India, and most of the time, there is no correct side and no wrong side. You must look both sides to stay alive. In fact kids are taught to look both sides.

@Zaibis: The idea is that on busier/wider (> 1 lane per direction) roads, you can first concentrate on the direction of the lanes directly ahead, cross those until you reach the "middle" of the road, and then wait there for a gap in the other direction.

I have suggested a change in title, as I found the current one rather misleading. By "being a pedestrian", I expected information on how to walk alongside/on a road, which involves a whole bunch of other behavioral guidelines, rather than just crossing it. (After all, you may well have to cross a road while essentially being a motorist ... who happened to park vice-versa of their destination.)

@O.R.Mapper: Ah ok got it. but I also didn't get from OP that he actually was asking where to look first, but got the impression he asks about where to look at all.

check both ways and then the first way again.

@O.R.Mapper You have altered what I understood to be the intent of this OP. Crossing the road is indeed mentioned in the post but I understood it to be far more than that, without in any way being 'too broad'. ie I disagree with Relaxed's Question is in which direction you look first.

@pnuts: Hm, debatable, I'd say. The question can be read in such a way that it exclusively refers to crossing the road. And, after reading the existing answers, it seems like they fully answer the "crossing the road" part without really answering anything else (such as "walking along the road"), which is usually an indication that this question is good as it is, and the other facets should receive their own questions (or, taken differently, if the other facets were to be explicitly included here, this goes into the "asking several things at a time" direction).

@pnuts: And, for what it's worth: "I disagree with Relaxed's Question is in which direction you look first." - it seems your first thought after reading the question was to explain in which direction to look (first) ;)

@O.R.Mapper I now see my Comment can be taken that way but what I meant was stay exceedingly alert! - so even when proceeding along a pavement, still look both ways.

@pnuts I am not sure, I just mentioned one way it could be relevant. But if the question is how to cross a large road with lots of traffic and a central reservation, then the advice given here (switching all the time) isn't necessarily the best way to go. What people who have to cross motorways professionally are instructed to do is to never let their eyes off the incoming traffic (and walk, not run!). You have to take your time before starting and know which side to look, obviously.

@Relaxed In Tehran the (excellent) advice I heard/took for 'motorway' type traffic/roads was "Find an old lady, get downstream of her and stick very close. Stop when she does and run when she does" (so keep your eyes on her, you can ignore all else until the other side of the road!)

@Zaibus: it's a bad habit and I don't recommend it, but here in the UK (drive on the left), if I'm walking down the street with the road to my left then I know that oncoming traffic is closer to me, and traffic from behind me is further. So to cross, I can see there's nothing coming right at me, then I step into the road and simultaneously look over my shoulder. So if I'm wrong what side of the road they're driving on because I'm acting on habit, then I might step right in front of something. If all goes to plan then I can step back off the road when there's something coming from behind me.

... obviously what I should do is check the road before stepping into it, regardless of what side of it people should or actually are driving on. But the habit only becomes a liability when I actually am wrong: one-way streets and foreign countries.

Looking both ways is best, once in Germany I nearly crossed a road and saw a car coming on their "wrong" side of the road - which would be correct for the UK but had got in the habit of checking both ways even more there and certainly didn't expect that so saved me walking into it's path had I only checked what would be correct way there!

Follow a chicken.

In Australia you would have been taught to look left then right, then cross. You need to reverse this. Immediately before crossing you should be checking the direction where the immediate danger will be coming from. On any reasonably busy street, it's not going to be clear in both directions at the same time, so timing is absolutely crucial.

It's safe to assume that in most developing countries, most drivers are complete, utter, inconsiderate a-holes. Always remember this. The only person who values your life is you.

@user1751825: s/developing//