Crosswalks: The magical paint that protects you from being hit by a car.....

Before I begin another semi-relevant rant, let me ask a simple question. Crosswalk on a road, shrouded by trees, blinded from view by both sunrise and sunset glare and highly trafficked: should one attempt to create such a death-trap? Given my biased explanation, I hope most people would reply, "No." Yet this is the first and last part of my commute to and from work every day. A recent tragedy where two individuals were struck and killed by a possibly drunk driver at night on just such a crosswalk brought this long-standing pet peeve to mind and inspired this entry.

We live in a society where the law says pedestrians have the right of way, yet our cities are clearly designed for navigation by motor vehicle. Regardless of which is correct, or what type of infrastructure we should be aiming for, this is the state of things as they currently stand. You can paint whatever type of lines on the road you wish, but the fact remains that if you're walking across a road at the wrong time and a car intersects with your path, the outcome is likely to be negative.

This phenomenon of crosswalks has amazed me since I began my driving career. Coming from a small town, I wasn't used to random portions of the highway where one should expect pedestrians to be meandering about, in the middle of the road. I moved to the D.C. area at the age of 18 and realized these crosswalks were really more of a burden than an asset to anyone in our society.

Take the part of the pedestrian: you're walking in the city, you wish to cross the road. The diagonally painted lines on the asphalt tell you it's ok to do just that, creating perhaps a false sense of security. You see the crosswalk, you attempt to cross. It seems to me that this simple convention of modern cities has punched a hole in our otherwise rational brains. Whatever happened to mom's warning "look both ways before you cross the street?" That logic seems to have flown completely out the window when crosswalks are available. Be they on bike, on foot, on skateboard or pushing a baby stroller, the presence of the lines indicating it is safe to cross the road at a certain point makes the majority of those who use them, completely unable to take a second of precaution and check the road situation for themselves.

I won't disagree that in many of our modern cities the whole "crossing the road" situation is near impossible. It makes sense that someone would want something like a crosswalk to aid in that whole process. In more successful venues where people don't get plastered into the pavement by cars, I've seen such contraptions as pedestrian bridges that make an arc over the roadway. This prevents both drivers and walkers from having to deal with the situation. There is also the crosswalk sign attached to stop lights where an illuminated figure of a person mid-stride or a firm hand image indicates whether or not you should cross the road at a given time. But more often than not what I see most frequently are a few slabs of paint on the road, giving otherwise intelligent people the freedom to act in complete stupidity and cross an otherwise teeming highway without so much as glancing in either direction.

As with any modern convenience, we have to use these inventions to our benefit, not our detriment. If you haphazardly engage in any sort of activity you're likely to come out mangled and disappointed on the other side. I personally have never viewed the crosswalk as the "free for all," that most seem to take it for. Sure, there are some lines painted on the road and maybe even a sign that says "pedestrians have the right of way." Regardless, the car careening 45 miles per hour towards me tells my logical side that it doesn't really matter who has the technical right of way. I'd be best off avoiding a collision with such an instrument, even if it means I might have to actually pay attention to the road way or wait a few moments before barreling across it.

Unless you're suicidal, I believe you would agree with me that being plowed over by a car is an unpleasant consideration. Yet if you go for a morning walk or take your bike out for a spin before work each day, you're probably one of the people I call "idiots" who have barely avoided being trampled by my car in the crosswalk. Suppose you're going 45 miles per hour; the speed limit on the road where I most frequently encounter this very issue. As a driver of an automobile, you're accustomed to stop signs, stop lights, and traffic that makes you slow down. It is highly unlikely that you're instinctively trained to be wary of bikes and soccer moms with baby strollers popping into the roadway like an 80's arcade game. It just doesn't make sense. Yet more than a few times I've found myself screeching my brakes just short of that crosswalk to avoid hitting these very people. Typically they come out of the neighborhood bushes unexpectedly, and I naively assumed they would remain on the sidewalk until I had passed. They saw me approaching at regular speed and chose to endanger all of our livelihoods by stepping into the middle of a road without any regard as to whether or not it was clear to pass. Look both ways before crossing? If there is some magical paint on the road saying its a crosswalk, apparently there is no need to use common sense.

Tragically there are many aspects of modern life that fall victim to this same type of ironic stupidity. What I want to understand, is when we became so ineptly retarded that we stopped using our basic common sense and reasoning that had brought us this far as a society? Is the crosswalk a good consideration? Sure; it would make the roads nicer for pedestrians in a perfect world. Are condoms a good way to prevent STDs? Of course, but again in the heat of moment so many people make the conscious choice to not use them, in favor of our other urges. I don't think its necessary to go into the horrible outcomes that poor decision has lead so many people to encounter, nor should I have to reiterate the good reasons to disregard the lines painted on the road telling you its cool to just walk out in the middle of it without thinking. Look before you leap. Best advice in so many situations.