Pedestrians who?

Hello readers!

I spent a long while as a pedestrian. For many periods of my life, I did not have a drivers licence, and if I had, I wouldn't have been able to afford a car. So, I walked, rode a bike, took a bus or taxi when I could. But I didn't have that freedom that comes from having a set of wheels to get myself around with. A freedom that now, admittedly, I take for granted. So having been both a pedestrian and a driver, I now feel pretty darn qualified to rant about this subject.

Nearly on a daily basis, or at least so it seems for the last six months or so, I hear about pedestrians being killed by cars on the streets of Indianapolis. Now I don't live in Indy, but I'm a half an hour car ride away from the outskirts and only an hour from the city center. Having driven through downtown Indy, the traffic is scary to say to the least. There is a lot of it and it moves fast. Some of the roads and traffic signals are confusing to say the least. And a lot of the roads are massively wide, multi-lane monsters built to accommodate the huge traffic flow.

I get it that Indy is a big city. But it has to be one of the least pedestrian friendly cities I've ever seen! The most appalling thing about all these deaths, are the comments on the news articles. People blaming the pedestrian, saying it MUST have been their fault. And in some cases, I'm sure it is. But it can't possibly be that in all cases. The utter lack of compassion or empathy is disgusting. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, but it still makes me very angry.

Even when I lived in little bitty Winchester, with it's minuscule population, and even though I always followed rules ie: wait for signals, etc. I very nearly got hit several times. I actually had someone waiting to make a left turn decide I wasn't moving fast enough and they sped within inches of my back and honked their horn, scaring the life out of me. When I had the right of way! I also nearly got hit on my bike a number of times, even though again, I followed the traffic rules.

But too many people (and I'm not saying everyone cause I see many people who do give way to pedestrians) just think the road completely belongs to them. They disregard right of way to everyone, pedestrians, cyclists, and other cars. (pickup truck drivers are notorious for this) and seem to act as though traffic laws simply don't apply to them.

Or when the weather is bad, sweltering hot or frigidly cold, pouring with rain or pelting down snow or ice, I've seen people in their nice, air conditioned/heated cars, safe and comfortable from the elements, force a pedestrian to wait while they sped through an intersection. I'm sorry, if you can't wait five seconds for a pedestrian to cross, helping them get out of that weather a little sooner, then you should leave your house earlier if you're worried about being late. Its despicable!

And I've been in cities where the pedestrian takes precedence, and even though drivers don't like it, they put up with it, otherwise they'd have massive fines or jail time on their hands. I've walked the streets of New York City and did not feel the same kind of fear of traffic that I do in Indianapolis. And Indy is a gnat compared to the population of NYC. I've also been to other countries, England and Wales. And while I found the drivers to be a bit crazy sometimes, they still followed pedestrian rules. In England, all traffic, on all four sides of an intersection, stops when pedestrians are given the go ahead to cross. ALL OF THEM! And, there are entire streets of city centers in large cities like Birmingham or Wolverhamton, that are designated to be 'car free'. The road is home only to pedestrians, and you often have little shop booths running right down the center of the road you can peruse. This doesn't seem to bother anyone there, but Americans, it would likely drive them crazy. At least here in Indiana!

Rather than complaining about pedestrians, Indianapolis needs to do something to protect pedestrians from insane drivers who are selfish, self-important fools that act as though the world needs to move out of their way, rather than the other way around. How many more people have to die before they get a clue?

I'm not saying its always the drivers fault, but stop assuming it is always the pedestrian too. I think people do that simply because they can't admit to themselves they've probably almost hit a pedestrian from time to time. That would mean admitting they are wrong, and who likes to do that?

Okay, rant over, thanks for listening!

Dawn