Don’t even THINK about stepping a toe off of the curb until the light says WALK.

One of the things that amazed me about the people in Los Angeles is the fact that they are so obedient to traffic signals. If you are walking down a street with no traffic and you come to a curb, even if there is not a car in sight you have to stay on the curb and wait until the light changes to the WALK sign.

At first I was shocked when a companion stopped me and whispered, “You’ll get a ticket if you go.”

I looked around for the police. I looked around for cars.

“But there’s no cars coming.”

She shook her head.

No one ever crosses the street unless the traffic signal says WALK. No one.