Pedestrians

It's remarkable just how much worse drivers have gotten over the years. Of course, I could be viewed as biased on this issue. I don't drive. I am much more accustomed to the life of a pedestrian. To please the driving community, I will acknowledge that pedestrians have also gotten much worse over the years.


It's remarkable how the decline in driving has corresponded to pedestrians becoming less cautious. When I was younger, I didn't see a whole lot of jaywalking. It was almost like pedestrians were anal about finding a safe crossing. Now that our streets are busier, people refuse to walk an extra five feet to get to a crosswalk.

There's also a lot of pure recklessness. People don't pay attention any more. It's like they don't mind jumping out in front of a car. I also get sick of all the text messaging. It's not just a danger for drivers. A lot of pedestrians don't have any clue where they are walking. They might walk into a utility pole. They might walk into a more responsible pedestrian. They might walk in front of a car that doesn't have time to stop. I have seen some of these people actually have enough sense to cross at a light, but they frequently don't start crossing until the don't walk light comes up (or even later) because they weren't paying attention.

There are other problems as well. I feel that most incidents involving both a car and a pedestrian (but definitely not all) could be prevented if either side was doing their job. The tie always goes to the driver. This means that the bulk of the blame should go to the driver. They are the ones who risk the lives of others. Pedestrians are only risking their own lives.

Of course, we need to cut pedestrians some slack. If they are making these mistakes that endanger their own lives, do we really want them behind the wheel of a car where they will likely endanger others? If you are irresponsible, you should be on foot.

I have angered drivers before when I have done nothing wrong (not to imply that I'm perfect and have never made mistakes). I have been honked at because I was crossing a side street when a car wanted to turn even though that car was not in the turn lane nor signaling when I started crossing. I have been yelled at for crossing against a light when I actually had the walk light.

Part of the problem is that people view driving as more of a right than walking. Since walking is more natural and does not require a financial investment, I don't think there's any question that walking is more of a fundamental right. A lot of drivers are intolerant of pedestrians that inconvenience them. They don't want to waste even one second waiting for pedestrians. Instead, they want the pedestrians to waste minutes or even hours waiting for the entire roadways to clear.

Drivers need to get out of their cars and spend some time walking. It's bad enough that so few people are willing to walk across the street these days. What's even worse is how critical of pedestrians drivers have become without bothering to understand what a pedestrian has to deal with.

Even responsible pedestrian have to deal with bad drivers. We're not going to grow old and die to wait to cross a busy street. Instead, we should be looking at the cars and establishing which cars are potential threats. We need to ensure that the driver knows that we are about to cross. Once we feel that it is safe, we need to look all four directions repeatedly until we are on the other side (keeping in mind that a bad driver could potentially come from any of those directions). I have handled this properly before. I have actually stopped in the middle of a crosswalk to wait for a car that I knew was going to run the light even though the light was installed just for pedestrians. I have also screwed up and been nearly hit by a driver that wasn't paying any attention to the light (since this light also allowed cars turning left onto a street, my presence in the crosswalk prevented better drivers from putting themselves directly in front of this driver - I prevented an accident).

Unrelated to the risks, I should also point out that street signs and construction seem to be geared towards drivers. A lot of time, pedestrians don't have all they need. Not only do construction crews get in the way of pedestrians (parking on sidewalks) as an attempt to get out of the way of drivers, but they don't even provide proper signage. It's annoying to not know that I can't get through on one side of the street when I don't have a safe crossing. I would like to see signs put up to tell pedestrians that pedestrians should cross to avoid the work ahead. Ideally, these signs should be posted at the nearest crosswalk. Sometimes, there is no sign of anything for a mile, and it's not going to work to tell people to backtrack a mile to find that crossing.