I know that obviously when there's a crossing light, the pedestrian should use it. I always do. What I'm talking about are those smaller streets like in between blocks. I live in a busy area so the traffic is pretty much constant. Every time I go to cross them, I look to make sure the approaching car sees me and isn't going too fast. Then I go ahead and cross. But when I do this, they HONK at me like I was supposed to wait for them. If I waited for there to be 0 cars in the proximity I would never reach my destination in time! I've tried signaling to them to stop so I can go but they usually just ignore me and keep going. They basically refuse to stop unless I'm already crossing the street.

Then there's the flip side, if I stand there to see if they are stopping for me and I DON'T go, they get impatient and honk at me. Come to think of it, this also happens at the crossing light with the turning cars too. It feels like I just can't win! So am I right that once they've seen me they should be the one to stop, not the other way around? It angers me so much that because I'm walking, where I have to be is less important and I'm always in the wrong, no matter what.