As an European which spend 4 years in Sydney recently I was always surprised at the opposite. Every after going out at midnight, Hurds of people would be waiting for a red light with no car/traffic in sight for a mile. I always jaywalk, feel particularly upset that a computer is telling me to wait for a save time, without context, while I can obviously tell it's save.
Recently discussed this behaviour in Sydney, remember it was particularly bad around Surry hills
"just walk through the red light when there's no traffic"
You can't blame them, it really is damn infuriating when nothing is coming. Same applies as a driver, if I could have back all the time I've waited for lights to change I reckon I'd be years younger. Sydney's traffic light system is brain-dead.
Incidentally, years ago I was at a trade launch by a well known company and I found myself sitting next to a person who was one of the programmers for the traffic light system and I made the mistake of mentioning how bad the system was. Wow, he nearly took my head off, it was such as sensitive subject. He then proceeded to lecture me about how difficult the problem was and how good the local effort was compared with many other comparable cities.
