Safety rules save lives, livelihoods, and well-being. But putting safety first seems to have fallen out of favor.
Here in Asheville, North Carolina, I’m seeing what you may notice in your own community. That is more people that take crosswalks without stopping, looking, and listening first.
In what appears to be growing numbers, some walk, run, and jog directly into the crosswalk with no concern for oncoming cars or their own safety!
In one neighborhood I see this a lot as it has wide sidewalks on both sides of a very long street. It’s perfect for people walking or jogging.
But some runners and walkers, rather than marching or running in place at crosswalks as they stop to check for oncoming traffic, take off right across the road.
For a driver it’s confusing and frightening. Has a generation not been taught to stop, look, and listen first or have they forgotten? Are we all so spaced out from our devices that even when we’re not using them, we are disoriented? Is it a question of entitlement?
When on foot do we forget what it’s like to be the driver?
A driver rolls up to the stop sign, stops, looks both ways for oncoming cars and pedestrians.
They look down the road as far as the eye can see for oncoming traffic. Oncoming cars have the right of way and you can’t safely judge the speed of a moving car.
As they glance left and right and back again, the driver checks for pedestrians too. What they don’t do is make the assumption that a pedestrian, several yards away, will close in on them and cross the street as if their car is not there,
Camouflage
Many pedestrians are hidden by their nondescript workout wear. Blending in with the shadows from the trees that fall across the sidewalk, they don’t realize they can’t be seen.
This isn’t the 1980’s with folks out exercising in workout clothes of bright fuchsia and turquoise with silver accents! We wear brown, gray, white, black, forest green – colors that cause us to blend in with, even be concealed by, the trees and shadows around us.
The combination of wearing clothes that disappear in the shadows and not following pedestrian safety rules means drivers don’t see pedestrians taking the crosswalk until it’s almost too late.
I’ve been the driver prepared to roll out into the street, slamming on my brakes at 1 mile an hour because I suddenly and unexpectedly had a pedestrian in front of my car. They didn’t react to my sudden stop. They didn’t know I was there.
A truly frightful scene
Recently I was second behind a car that was rolling up to a stop sign when a family of four, two young parents and their two young children, took the crosswalk without a single break in their step.
The parents perhaps guessed at or made the following assumptions:
- The driver is paying attention and will stop.
- The driver won’t roll into the crosswalk.
- The drivers behind the first car pay strict attention.
- Pedestrians have the right of way regardless.
Or perhaps it was as simple as the parents, so bone tired and ready to be home, operated without focusing on the tasks at hand.
The tasks at hand are:
- Approach the crosswalk with safety and care.
- Take the opportunity to teach the children how to safely cross the street.
- Stop, look, listen, and even make eye contact with the driver approaching the crosswalk before stepping off the sidewalk to cross the road.
(By the way, In some states, if a pedestrian contributes to their own bodily harm, there is no compensation paid.)
I don’t know about your world, but in my world pedestrian safety rules seem to be ignored by greater numbers of people. They take risks with their own lives, livelihoods, and well-being. And they put others at the same risk.
It seems very similar to the issue of wearing masks.
To cross a street appropriately is an act of self-care and care of neighbor. It does not infringe on a person’s constitutional right to freedom.
Does a mandate to wear a mask in public and to work within the confines of social distancing infringe on a person’s constitutional right to freedom?
There was a time when there were no pedestrian crosswalks and no safety rules telling pedestrians to stop, look, and listen before crossing any street in case a horse, or horse drawn buggy, or a horseless carriage came roaring down the road.
Human transportation forced the issue and we began teaching ourselves and our young how to safely navigate the road.
Mask wearing helps us safely navigate life with COVID-19 until we have enough information and resources to do more to fight the virus.
It’s a safety rule, like stopping, looking, and listening before crossing any street.
Some of us humans do put ourselves in harm’s way, in such a way, as to potentially destroy our own and the lives of others. It’s part of the human condition.
But between a greater number of pedestrians taking crosswalks in the face of oncoming cars and people not wearing masks because they believe it infringes on their freedom, the world feels unnecessarily strange and dangerous.
Safety rules save lives. Caring for our neighbor helps us bear the weight of the pandemic.
When driving I stay on the lookout for the pedestrians that walk, run, and jog while distracted. In public I wear my mask to protect others. I hope my own mask protects me from those not wearing masks.
Caring for others helps me embrace and work with the feelings of insecurity and uncertainty that are prevalent for all of us at this time in history.
Putting safety first, obeying safety rules, is a small and consistent way of treating our fellow human beings and our very own selves with respect, love, care, and consideration.
How do we want others to treat the most vulnerable, beloved person in each of our lives? Perhaps it’s best for us to treat, protect, and care for others – the neighbor and the stranger – that way.
I was a middle-aged adult when I began stuttering. It blindsided me! Having to to do with social anxiety, my thoughts would get derailed. It created even more stress than I was already under. I’d make a contribution to a conversation when suddenly a word would disappear. Repeating the last one or two words I’d been speaking, I’d be unable to stop or move forward. Finally I’d blurt out a description of the word I was looking for. Then I could finish my thought and bring my contribution to the conversation to a close.
One day, mid-stutter, I followed a hunch. Slowing everything down, I slowed down my thinking, I slowed down my breathing, and I slowed down the sounds coming out of my mouth till I fell silent. Then I slowed down my feelings by reassuring me.
The gift is in the details.