My Fellow Pedestrians: Look Both Ways

Please don’t cross when there is a red light if there are cars. You do no one any good. Yeah, I do it. However, there’s a difference. I actually look and pay attention. If you just cross the street even though there is a red light or a red hand and you cause cars to stop even though they have the right of way, you’re doing your fellow pedestrians a disservice. I understand that on occasion cars seem to come out of nowhere. Despite their heft, they can turn a corner faster than you might think. If you live in a place with lots of one-way streets it’s easier to get away with it, but if the red hand is up, you don’t have the right of way. So don’t just cross the street without looking both ways. I’m not your mom, but do us all a favor and don’t give cars a reason to blare their horns.

Look, I’m all for pedestrians’ rights and the right of way for pedestrians, but every time we (the collectively we of pedestrianism) run afoul of a car, it’s just more ammunition for them to hate us. If we are to unite against our vehicular oppressors, we cannot give them reasons to blast their horns at us. We must maintain the high ground. As I said recently, I don’t advocate violence, but I do flip the occasional bird and less frequently I lose my cool.

On a related note, if you’re standing at the corner waiting for the light to turn, please press the walk button. You may believe it’s an exercise in futility; that’s your prerogative. For those of us who have seen the walk sign pop up only when the button is pushed, humor us and push the damn button.

Just because you’re willing to play Frogger with the traffic doesn’t mean the rest of us should.

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