Waddling Across the Street
I hate pedestrian crossings. Not as a pedestrian, but as a driver. Yes, they're necessary. Yes, drivers have to show respect to unprotected pedestrians. But some pedestrians should also show respect to harrassed drivers.
Some times I drive up to a crossing and someone is meandering across, checking their phones, oblivious to the fact that a car is waiting. They could be
walking in the park just as well. These people will not see you even if you honk your horn. Other times someone is walking on the catwalk. A turn of the hip here, a twist of the shoulder there, and you are obliged to stop and admire the latest fashion of Me. Then there are those who cross leisurely and may glance down at you, challenging you to make any gesture of protest. These are likely to whip out the phone and call the local cops with your license plate number and accuse you of verbal assault if you dare show any sign of impatience.
My favorites are the last-minute crossers. You approach a crosswalk at a normal speed. There's no one there. Suddenly, as you are about to pass the crossing, someone on the sidewalk turns and begins to cross as you go by and raises his fist and screams abuse for not stopping. How? By slamming on the brakes and putting both our lives in danger? If a car is behind me, do I just stop and let them plow into me? It's not the first time a driver stops suddenly at a crosswalk for a pedestrian and that the car behind can't stop in time. There have been cases of fender benders that end with the pedestrian in the hospital.
Then there are those who eschew crosswalks completely and dart across a street at any point, certain that the driver will see them and slow down, even if the car is just a couple meters away. If you happen to slam into one of these, legally, you're in luck. The law makes it obligatory for pedestrians to use the crosswalks and drivers are not held responsible if they run over a pedestrian outside the crossing. Of course, it doesn't mean you won't get serious headaches from all the run around with the lawyers and desires of burning your driver's license (along with the pedestrian who caused all the hou-ha in the first place).
The thing that I just don't get is that when accident statistics come out and the number of pedestrians mown down go up, the drivers are always to blame. Cities and towns install lighted signs, paint colorful flourescent stripes on the tarmac, and turn crosswalks into speed bumps to slow down cars deliberately (and destroy their shock absorbers) and yet people still get hurt crossing the street. It doesn't matter, people still cross thinking the crosswalk turns them into undestructable tanks. And they get hurt.
Unfortunately, the intelligent pedestrian that understands the dangers and waits to see if the car stops and then crosses at a normal clip are few and far between. It could be because in schools here kids aren't taught a simple rule, one that I was taught a long time ago. Look both ways and wait until the cars stop to cross at the crosswalk.
Some times I drive up to a crossing and someone is meandering across, checking their phones, oblivious to the fact that a car is waiting. They could be
My favorites are the last-minute crossers. You approach a crosswalk at a normal speed. There's no one there. Suddenly, as you are about to pass the crossing, someone on the sidewalk turns and begins to cross as you go by and raises his fist and screams abuse for not stopping. How? By slamming on the brakes and putting both our lives in danger? If a car is behind me, do I just stop and let them plow into me? It's not the first time a driver stops suddenly at a crosswalk for a pedestrian and that the car behind can't stop in time. There have been cases of fender benders that end with the pedestrian in the hospital.
Then there are those who eschew crosswalks completely and dart across a street at any point, certain that the driver will see them and slow down, even if the car is just a couple meters away. If you happen to slam into one of these, legally, you're in luck. The law makes it obligatory for pedestrians to use the crosswalks and drivers are not held responsible if they run over a pedestrian outside the crossing. Of course, it doesn't mean you won't get serious headaches from all the run around with the lawyers and desires of burning your driver's license (along with the pedestrian who caused all the hou-ha in the first place).
The thing that I just don't get is that when accident statistics come out and the number of pedestrians mown down go up, the drivers are always to blame. Cities and towns install lighted signs, paint colorful flourescent stripes on the tarmac, and turn crosswalks into speed bumps to slow down cars deliberately (and destroy their shock absorbers) and yet people still get hurt crossing the street. It doesn't matter, people still cross thinking the crosswalk turns them into undestructable tanks. And they get hurt.
Unfortunately, the intelligent pedestrian that understands the dangers and waits to see if the car stops and then crosses at a normal clip are few and far between. It could be because in schools here kids aren't taught a simple rule, one that I was taught a long time ago. Look both ways and wait until the cars stop to cross at the crosswalk.
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