Editor:
I have been both a driver and a pedestrian. Believe me, there is enough idiocy to go around. Impatient drivers who find it difficult to wait while older or mobility challenged people cross the road. Impatient pedestrians who cannot wait for the next walk signal at a crosswalk and dart out in front of moving vehicles. Drivers who have forgotten what signal lights are for, how to use them or how to signal if your lights do not work. Pedestrians who have not figured out that a moving vehicle cannot stop on a dime and, crosswalk or not, just walk out into the street.
When news reports "Pedestrian hit in crosswalk," do they ever question if a controlled crosswalk showed a walk signal? Of course not. It is always assumed the pedestrian was right in crossing. Who cares if a car is turning right, the crosswalk control says "Don't Walk" and some yahoo comes running down the street from half a block away and darts out in front of a moving car. It must be the driver's fault, right?
We all need to slow down.
Drivers need to remember they are in a machine which can easily kill or maim and assume that person on the corner is going to step out into the road in front of you.
Pedestrians, the new electric vehicles make little to no sound. Use your eyes, look both ways before you cross a road even in a crosswalk — a lesson I was taught as a child.
Signals are there for a reason. A yellow light does not mean go faster for cars or that it is still OK for pedestrians to cross the street.
As I said, enough idiocy to go around.
H. Fisher
