Post #19

Every once in a while I take notice of something that happens all the time but I don't really notice what it is until that instant. It's something I've seen a thousand times but just now see it in a totally new and different light. It's a refreshing, sometimes disturbing thing to have happen.

One such experience occurred while I crossed the parking lot to Penobscot Hall this morning on my way to class. As I stepped up to the crosswalk, a car was traveling towards me at a moderate speed. I took the first two steps into the crosswalk and turPOW!CRACK!SNAP! The car smacked right into me and threw me 300 feet where I got struck by another car coming in the opposite direction.

That's not what actually happened but it very well could have if I had not paid attention. What actually happened was somewhat different but did made me take notice of this situation. What happened was that I did indeed step up to the crosswalk and the car was there. As I took that first step I expected that the car would slow down. Not the case. It continued, traveling through the crosswalk with me standing in it. It wasn't a close call, in my view, but some people probably would have shit a brick. As the car passed me, I took notice of the driver. He was pretending to look the other way, like he didn't see me. I know he saw me and this was the point where I came to see this event in a totally new perspective.

This situation has happened to me before. I've seen drivers not look at me or look away in order to act like the don't see me standing there that way they feel like they don't have to stop. This is something that happens quite often. The fact is, people just don't want to stop unless they absolutely have to. The only crosswalk around town that is actually respected is the one in front of the post office downtown. If someone is even close to approaching the crosswalk, all the cars come to a screeching halt. This only happens because the police are always around there and people know they'll throw tickets at them if they catch them not stopping. Don't get it twisted, it's not that the drivers have more respect for pedestrians in that part of town, they're just scared of "the fuzz."

Anyway, I think that we could solve the problem by installing strips on either side of the crosswalk. Why strips? Good question. When a person approaches the crosswalk, the strips could go from flat to attack as metal spikes with sharp points jump up out threatening to rip any oncoming tires to shreds if they dare enter the sacred crosswalk. People would feel a lot safer and the drivers would have a ton more caution around crosswalks knowing that their cars could be sitting on the rims if they dare cut off the innocent pedestrian in the crosswalk.