September 12, 2005
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You know, crosswalks are all very well, but ISTM the smart
person….the one likely to have a lifespan longer than next
Thursday….doesn’t just step into the street, blithely assuming oncoming cars will stop.Yeah, yeah, this is the only way to get anywhere on foot in Rome, but Fort Worth isn’t Rome, now is it?
I was just driving down University on my way to the TCU-area
Albertson’s when my attention was caught by some peculiar – and large -
boulders plunked down (in what doubtless meant to be a tasteful
arrangement) outside of what was a gymnasium when I was a sophomore
there. No telling what the building is now, of course.
Anyway, the TCU campus is not generally given to such flights of fancy
so I was staring at the rocks in some perplexity, feeling reasonably
safe in so doing as there was no intersection coming up, nor any cars
in front of me.There WAS, however, a faded crosswalk. When I turned my attention
back to the road (understand this has taken much longer to read than it
did to happen) I was dismayed to find a man stepping off the median
into the street. I was in the right hand lane, thank the LORD, so
I had some time to react, which I did by applying the brakes with more
than my usual degree of enthusiasm (it wasn’t necessary to actually slam
on the brakes), allowing me to come to a stop right as he approached my
front left fender. He casually waved a gracious acknowledgement
of my halting for him (which, to be fair, was pretty civil of him) and
crossed in front fo me.We were very very fortunate, that’s all. Fortunate I wasn’t in
the inside lane (he’d have been roadkill), fortunate I looked to the
left instead of checking my rearview mirror, fortunate I wasn’t
speeding, etc.I’ll willingly grant I shouldn’t have allowed my gaze to linger on the
boulders, but in my defense, there were no cars ahead of me, and there
was no intersection where pedestrians would be expected to cross.If the man had bothered looking at my car he’d have surely noticed my
head turned away from him, which would tip him the nod I’m unaware
there’s anyone about to walk out in front of me.There one is, though. More proof of the old saying “Assumptions
are dangerous things”! I assumed no one would just step in front
of an oncoming minivan, and he assumed the driver of the minivan wasn’t
distracted by the boulders at 2:00. (In this age of cellphones,
it’s doubly dangerous to assume a driver isn’t distracted, what with
people trying to dial using those itty-bitty buttons on those
teeny-tiny phones.)
Comments (7)
When we were in Texas, the commander at our base changed base policy regarding crosswalks (previously it was the same as it is in the rest of the civilized world: pedestrians have the right of way only after they get in the crosswalk) so that pedestrians who are approaching the crosswalk have the right of way. This was extremely annoying for several reasons, one being that there were plenty of intesections where, given the fact that most drivers can’t read pedestrians minds, we would have to stop and wait to find out if the pedestrian intended to cross the street or turn the corner, and the second being that when I’m a pedestrian, I do not want strangers stopping for me and expecting me to walk out in front of them. I’ll cross the street when *I* feel safe, thankyouverymuch, and that’s not when a stranger in an SUV is sitting three feet away from my path with his engine running.
This morning during my run, I approached a road intersecting the one I was on. Now, I obey the rules of the road which say that if you are on foot, you walk against the traffic, but if you are on wheels, you ride with the traffic. So I was doing that, and this woman approaches the intersection, barely bothering to look in my direction because she wanted to turn right, not crossing traffic. She nearly ran me over because she didn’t bother to stop at the stop sign. That’s the second time that’s happened right there. But I can’t say that I never roll through stop signs.
Dunno if it is true at all campuses, but at Ohio State pedestrians have the right of way, period. Crosswalk or no. Students just keep walking when they get to the street. Drivers must be wary.
I don’t mind walking on campus, but I must admit to hating driving there.
I remember our first day in Princeton, NJ. They have that same policy where pedestrians have the absolute right away and don’t even seem to glance down the road to see if there is a car, and if there is, if the driver sees them. They just walk right out in front of you. Hal and I were driving along, trying to figure out where we were going, when we almost ran right over someone. Talk about startling! I think we honked at the guy. I’m sure that tipped him off right there that we didn’t belong.
I hadn’t realized it was that widespread a problem. That’s plumb stupid.
I can’t believe people would risk their lives by assuming the drivers of the on-coming traffic have one, noticed them and two, are of a law-abiding persuasion and intend to stop.
Rome’s a different matter. It’s literally the only way to cross the streets, but it scared me half to death everytime we did it.
At the college in downtown Colorado Springs the students cross regularly without looking up. Makes me a nervous wreck.