Crosswalks and Death Defying Acts

As I walk to work each morning, I feel more and more like poor little frogger, trying to cross the street without getting hit by a car.  It doesn't matter if I wait for a light and cross with the walking man symbol or if I were try and run across the street without a light.  No matter how you slice it, crossing the street has become a dangerous game.

Many times when I have the right of way to cross with the lights, drivers will ignore the pedestrian crosswalk, and pull out to make a turn almost hitting those of us crossing the street.  Has bowling for pedestrians become the new game that the non-drivers don't know about?

The other thing that really irks me about drivers in this city is when a car pulls out into a very busy intersection, trying to make a right hand turn on a red, and effectively blocking all pedestrian traffic from safely crossing the street.  NEWSFLASH:  You're in a car, I'm walking... no matter what, you'll still get to where you need to be faster than I will. 

I know I can bitch about this all until I'm blue in the face, but at least maybe one driver will read this and realise that they can make the road safer by following the rules of the road and giving us pedestrian folk the right of way.

Why Drivers Suck!

I'm a pedestrian and bus-rider. That's how I get around, and I'm cool with that. What I don't like is when people in cars are completely inconsiderate or downright rude to pedestrians. I'm pretty good at following rules. As a young child, I learned that the walking man symbol meant it was safe to cross the road, the blinky hand meant don't start crossing, and if you're in the nearing the other end of the crosswalk, hurry your ass up and get on the sidewalk so you don't get hit. Obviously, the solid red hand was a STOP! Don't cross! I also learned the meaning of red light, green light, yellow light, just like all the other children in kindergarten. Maybe just the pedestrians hold and retain this knowledge.... because it sure seems to me like a lot of drivers need to go back to kindergarten for this rudimentary training on traffic lights.

A few weeks back, I was standing at the corner of Locke and Main, waiting for the light to change and ultimately, my turn to cross Main St. to get to my bus stop. I watched the light on Main change to red, and seconds later, the light changed, signalling I could cross. I looked to the right (for the out of towners, Main's a 1 way street), and started to cross. I'd made it to the second lane when a taxi came barrelling right through the red light and lays on his horn at me, as he almost hits me. Um, the last time I checked, running a red light was against the law, but that's alright, I'm apparently just a mere moving speedbump... no value to my life at all.

Today, it was nice and rainy. As most Hamiltonians know, the roads are filled with potholes, or better yet, the roads are all potholes... I'm walking along Main when a white truck speeds along in the curb lane, hits a pothole that's filled with cold, dirty water; thereby creating a wave of water that was about 5 feet tall. How do I know it was 5 feet tall? That's because I got drenched from just about the top of my head, right down my left side, and I'm about 5'2". Thanks a lot jackass! I got to go shopping looking like I peed myself, and I was super cold for the better part of the afternoon since the water was pretty damn cold it's not quite balmy weather yet. Awesome!

Another one of my pet peeves is when cars block the intersection or part of the sidewalk as they're pulling out of a parking lot or driveway, making it impossible for a pedestrian to safely cross the road or continue on the sidewalk. This happens, at some point, every single day.

I also love when you're already in the middle of legally crossing the road, and a driver becomes impatient and decides to honk their horn, yell obscinities or ultimately, try to cut in front of you, and narrowly miss mowing you over in the process.

Last time I checked, the pedestrian; not the car, has the right of way.

Holy Flaming Car, Batman!

Yesterday was a very busy day for me. To sum it up, I went to work, left early for an appointment, went shopping and then decided to visit my sister at work, before heading home.

At 7:30, I decided to head home, and started walking to the closest bus stop, near the train station. I'm approaching the cross walk, and I hear the sound of tires squealing. I looked, and saw a car narrowly miss a bus, lose control and crash head-on into the corner of the overpass/bridge where the trains come into the station. What did the bus driver do? Well, he just kept on going, and didn't even stop for a moment. If I would've seen the bus number, I would've reported the driver for not remaining at the scene.

The driver gets out of the car, and quickly gets away from it, since the crumpled hood of the car is steaming and smoking. He then, in a total stroke of genious, goes back to the car to retrieve his sandals. By this time, I'm standing at the bus stop, and notice that where there was just smoke, there's now the beginning of flames under the hood of the car. I place a call to 911 to report the fire, and was told that they were already responding to a possible car fire. I stressed that it wasn't just a possible car fire anymore, that there were now flames rising above the hood.

Needless to say, since I'd witnessed the accident, I had to stay and tell the police what I saw. So, I got to sit in the back of a police car for the first time ever. Not really an experience I'd like to do ever again. I'm a short one, and my knees were touching the barrier wall between the front and back seat. Because I didn't see the colour of the light, since I was just paying attention to the crosswalk signals, my account of the events wasn't documented.

It's accidents such as this, that make me very glad that I'm environmentally friendly and take the bus.