lowoverheadpoetry - Car Owning Friends

We appreciate good behavior on the part of drivers, and so we'd also like to promote good behavior on the part of pedestrians. Here are some precepts to which we would like pedestrians to adhere, in the interest of promoting good driver-pedestrian relations.

1) Make an effort to use cross walks whenever possible. We realize the city often makes this IMpossible. But do your best.

2) If a driver is waiting for you, don't slow to the most leisurely of snail's paces as you cross the street. Especially if they are waiting for you while making a difficult left turn in the middle of a busy intersection, and you started crossing after they committed to their turn.

3) As much as possible, avoid using your mobile phone while crossing or preparing to cross the street -- or be extra aware. The same problems of inattention that apply to drivers apply to walkers here.

4) Don't rollerblade against the direction of traffic on a narrow one-way, or even two-way, street.

5) Don't dart. OK? Just don't do that.

6) When you're a jogger, and you're crossing five lanes of traffic on Lake Shore Drive having rushed to beat a flashing DON'T WALK sign, consider that by the time you get to the end, cars may be moving rather quickly and drivers have no way of detecting your presence until it's too late.

Even the crankiest of pedestrians endorses these policies. Hey, if nothing else, not darting will keep you from getting killed. Though perhaps in the spirit of natural selection we should really say dart if you feel like darting, though that could turn into a whole other rant. We PPFers, for the record, like to think of rule number two as the put-a-wiggle-in-it rule. This is not the only place it applies, by the way. Whenever ANYONE does you the courtesy of waiting for you, put a wiggle in it! This is a perpertual problem with intra-pedestrian relations, too. It's linked to the larger, I-don't-see-you-cause-I-am-better-than-you problem that one sees amongst pedestrians. Expect a sizzling editorial on this issue soon.....

Car Owning Friends

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