Look Both Ways before Crossing the Street!

Every morning to meet my carpool, I have to cross an estimated 17 intersections in a matter of 20 minutes. Now, some times I can just cross because it is one where there is no light and pedestrians have the right of way, or they are small side streets which are usually giving me the green means go. But today I realized that the lights here are so much different than in the US!

Now in the US, usually you have about 20 seconds to walk, and then it starts blinking for you to hurry up, but you still really have an additional 10 seconds to complete your cross, giving you about 30 seconds of cross time. This includes that approximately 5 second gap of time they give you for the Americans who don't feel the need to push themselves and think "Hey, let 'em hit me, I could use the money!" (yes, I may be guilty of this too)

But here, the light for pedestrians and cyclists is green for, yes, a decent period of time. However, then the light starts to blink telling me to put some pep in my step... but before I know it- the light is red and a car is coming at me!!!! These lights only give me a small grace period of about 3 seconds to finish my cross!

Then I noticed that as cars are coming, and their light turns yellow, they do not slow down. Not even when its red. They continue putting the pedal to the metal. And you know what? There is about a 7 second grace period the, for the cars to finish crossing the intersection!

It has completely changed my method of crossing the road as the light turns red... because there have been so many instances where I have almost turned into a Crepe (no pancakes here). It is also kind of funny, it is almost an example of how much Spaniard drivers can not be trusted to obey the law and the pedestrians have to suffer the consequences by longer wait times.

Is this the New Yorker in me speaking? Unfortunately so! I've got places to go!