What Exactly Is The Crosswalk Law In Portland, Anyway?

As someone who walks around in Downtown Portland quite a bit, I've noticed something that's quite different from my hometown of Concord, New Hampshire. Back home, whenever someone is standing at a crosswalk, cars immediately stop to let them pass. Here, it's a different story. I was standing at a crosswalk the other day, and at least 20 cars flew by before I had the opportunity to cross. And to be clear, I'm not talking about crosswalks with a walk light. I know that with those, you're supposed to push the button and wait for the signal. I'm talking about crosswalks without those.

So I decided to take a look at what the actual law is in the city of Portland, as it pertains to crosswalks. Here's what I found on mainelegislature.org:

Title 29-A: MOTOR VEHICLES AND TRAFFIC

Chapter 19: OPERATION

Subchapter 1: RULES OF THE ROAD

§2056. Pedestrians

4. Pedestrians in marked crosswalks. When traffic-control devices are not in operation, an operator must yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian who is crossing within a marked crosswalk or to a pedestrian who has shown visible intent to enter the marked crosswalk.

[ 2015, c. 164, §3 (AMD) .]

So there it is. Seems pretty clear to me! Maybe it's just that I'm just not showing enough "visible intent." Should I stick out a leg? An arm? Maybe I can just yell at the cars, "Hey, I'm trying to cross here!!" I'm going to do my best to experiment with this to see what works, without getting myself killed. In the meantime, if you're walking around the streets of Portland, know the law is on your side when entering a crosswalk. And if you're driving, let the people on a crosswalk cross...that's what they're there for!

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