Pedestrians can be Massholes, too
By adamg - Thu, 02/21/2008 - 10:29am.
FoxInDetox narrowly avoided plowing into a dumb woman and her dumb dog this morning.
- Add new comment |
| 
| 
Recent comments
Boston Blogs Network
- It's About Time
- St Clement Vineyards, St. Helena, CA
- The White Squirrel of Jamaica Pond is an albino squirrel!
- 'He's bored with being a senator, Part II
- Purcell and Murdoch, together again
- A little reality
- David Gregory to host "Meet the Press"
- All I Want For Christmas Is My 14 Bottom Teeth
- Send these Berklee profs to perform at Obama's inauguration?
- Pat Purcell Gets Into the Townie Paper Business (Again)
Sponsors
Boston Condos
Boston Luxury Condos
Waterfront Midtown
Condos
Consumer United For FREE!
Sign up for our eNews updates and use the promo code "SAVENOWBLOG" for one-year free membership with Consumer United.
Member:
Agreed
The local colleges should have a mandatory class in how to look both ways before crossing the street.
One thing I've learned from
One thing I've learned from being both a driver and a pedestrian is NEVER ASSUME ANOTHER DRIVER CAN SEE YOU.
Because if the sun's glaring off my windshield, and you're a pedestrian stepping into the road nowhere near an intersection? I'm not expecting you, so I might not see you, even though I'm paying attention to my surroundings. If you're a bicyclist without a light at night, wearing black? Can't see you. If you're just sure you're going to make that yellow light so you're going 10 miles over the speed limit, even though you're a block away? I don't think it's unreasonable for me to expect you to be planning to stop, so yes, I'm going to pull into the intersection when my light turns green, so even though I see you, I'm not expecting you to be an idiot.
I know, I really should just expect the worst of those with whom I share the road.
Also, pedestrians? You only have the right of way under certain circumstances, and those circumstances involve a marked crosswalk and either 1) an uncontrolled intersection, 2) a stop sign, or 3) having the little walking guy at a light. Just because you think you're crossing with the light, if there's a red hand up there, you don't actually have the right of way. You're jaywalking. I can't count how many times pedestrians who are jaywalking have given us dirty looks. But it's not as though the city's ever going to enforce jaywalking laws.
And let's not even go into the number of times I've seen drivers cruise blithely through intersections/red lights/school zones with their eyes clearly on their cell phone or PDA or something other than the road.
Pedestrian right of way
"You only have the right of way under certain circumstances, and those circumstances involve a marked crosswalk" - um, wait. So pedestrians *don't* have right of way at intersections that lack marked crosswalks? Really? I'm very surprised to learn that.
State law
Here's the state law. I believe different towns and cities may have further laws.
That's the scary thing
Pedestrians think that their presence will immediately stop a 2 ton pile of metal going at a legal 25 miles an hour.
http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/89-11.htm
The law pertains to crosswalks but there is a mis-perception that anyone can just stand in front of a car. The scariest are mom's with strollers who just stick the stroller into the road.
Doesn't anyone teach, STOP, Look left, look right and look left? If there are no cars approaching, you may cross.
Drivers have a responsibility to drive the posted speed limit in thickly settled areas but cannot be expected to stop on a dime to avoid a pedestrian not in a marked crosswalk.
The scary thing
Is when you don't have a crosswalk. I live on a residential street in the city of Boston which is about a mile long and has not one single crosswalk on the length of it.
That means we are all fair game. The little girl across the road got hit last April and had both her legs broken, but still we can't get a crosswalk. Cars and trucks barrel over the hill at 40MPH, and still no crosswalk. There's an accident here about once a month, and still... yeah, you guessed it, no crosswalk. When I asked my Councilor and the Mayor, they mumbled something about ambulances and ran away.
Let me guess - MDC/DCR Road?
The DCR has been systematically eliminating crosswalks because the guy who was in charge of such things felt that pedestrian traffic in "recreational" zones was an impediment to the speed of cars.
Not.making.this.up.
Good guess
But there's never been a crosswalk on Walter Street. It's been in the same place since horse and buggy days with no crosswalk. To the south, there's no crosswalk until you get to South Street, and to the north there's no crosswalk right through the wacky intersection with Centre Street.
This road isn't even safe for parking, let alone crossing.
Oh, yeah
That's the kind of road they could run a grand prix on, all nice and swervy and hilly and challenging for the most veteran of Masshole drivers. For pedestrians and residents, um, not so good.
Traffic calming devices (speed bumps or maybe just spikes that raise when an approaching automabile exceeds 50 m.p.h.) might work, although I doubt Boston's ready for that (although the city could take a look at the traffic "table" Dedham put in on Needham Street by the Riverdale School).
Believe me
I know exactly the speed table you're talking about, right in front of the school. In my wildest dreams, there's one just like it on my street. Until then, we're dodging the Grand Prix.
You would be amazed how many people come flying up the hill (we're at the top), and then jam on their brakes when they realize they're suddenly going downhill on the other side into a curve. I have woken up to smash smash smash more than once.
Minuteman Spirit
1)make an attempt to do things "the right way" with the Crown
2)get head patted, then use patted head to think up where the new speed bumps should go
3)enlist neighbors to buy concrete, surplus/worn out fire hose, and "temporary" speed humps
4)get them in place
5)nobody saw nothing
Would cause more accidents, not fewer
What's needed here is not just a road obstacle likely to cause more accidents, not fewer. What's needed here is a place for drivers to stop so pedestrians can cross, plus lights that warn drivers that they will have to stop with sufficient time to do so.
Believe me, I've fantasized about forming a midnight road crew, but I think it would hurt more than help. The problem is that people gun it to get up the hill, and then are surprised to find out that brakes don't help when they're going downhill into a curve on black ice. Something needs to stop or slow them before they get to that point. Hitting a surprise bump won't do it. As much fun as it would be to sit there and watch wheels come off, I'd be pulling them out of my own garden.
I figure the very top of the hill is the safest place to stop. The ideal would be a raised or textured crosswalk plus those anticipatory flashing "red light ahead" signs. But I'm slim on hopes the city is going to get it if they won't even fix the Walter/Centre intersection, with not one but three senior facilities, plus a church and a day care.
I'm pretty sure the
I'm pretty sure the commenter above was correct, with one exception. When at a stop sign or before making a right turn on red, vehicle operators must yield right of way to a pedestrian, regardless of whether or not there's a crosswalk.
I spend about 1/2 of my time getting around town in a car, and the other half on foot. As a pedestrian, when know I have the right of way, I have no problem taking it somewhat aggressively. When I'm behind the wheel, though, I find pedestrians who feel they ALWAYS have the right of way at an intersection to be a menace.
My favorite is pedestrians who think that the crosswalk negates the "Don't Walk" signal. Just this week I was coasting through a green light on Huntington Ave when a pedestrian strolled out right into the roadway in front of me. He didn't even bother to look... just stepped off the curb while I was less than 2 car lengths away (and already in the intersection).
I slammed on my brakes, and missed him by a couple of feet. He immediately started screaming obscenities at me, going on and on about how he was in a crosswalk and therefore had the right of way.