This isn’t the first time I’ve borrowed liberally from a deceased author. So, Mr. Orwell, please forgive my transgressions. You may have written “four legs good, two legs bad” but we’re in a different era now. To the masses I say “Two legs good, four WHEELS bad.”
My vitriol is nothing new to readers of The Angry Pedestrian’s writings. For whatever reason, I’ve seen an astounding number of cars (the “four wheels”) run red lights. I’m not talking about the “oh, the red light is about to change” variety. No, this is more along the lines of “No one’s looking? I’m going.” Forget the pedestrians standing idly by while cars make left turns on red lights (not from a one way street to another mind you) or a car at a dead stop waiting at a red light decides to cross the intersection because a of couple of bicyclists ride across the intersection, or the most egregious of all, in three lanes of traffic with cars stopped at a red light in the far left and far right lanes a truck barrels through the intersection as an elderly woman crosses the street. Yeah, that actually happened. In fact, all of these happened within a few days of each other in the same town. Call it a small sample size or an unrepresentative sample, but I call it the new normal.
What is most upsetting perhaps about this final scene is the fact that the woman crossing the street was all but resigned to the fact that this happens (presumably often). I’m not arguing for a police state – to borrow from another Orwellian piece – but there has to be some way for pedestrians to feel safe and not to have to cross the street with trepidation even when it is their turn.
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