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July 29, 2005
my stomach is still feeling pretty squirmy. this morning i was walking to bart, taking my now usual route down hayes. as i approached the intersection at franklin and hayes, i saw a woman running accross franklin, and thought to myself i wouldn't make that light anyway. this comment was automatically followed by my usual thoughts of how dangerous that intersection is. the thought pattern was almost instantly interrupted as, from seemingly out of nowhere, a green car, taking a right, hit said woman running accross the street. my stomach jumped up into my throat as i watched her disappear behind the green metal. when i looked up, i saw the red hand flashing on the signal, and the number 4 next to it. dude, i can still see the look on her face as she went down, and it's making me feel kinda sick.
i have close-calls with cars during my life as a pedestrian, even though i've really gotten in line with following the vast majority of pedestrian laws. it doesn't seem to matter though, cause city planning works with the commonly accepted preconceived notion that the rights of drivers supercede the rights of pedestrians, regardless of what may be the legistlated case. at this particular intersection, the true problem is the pedestrian never gets the right of way. during the entire time the crosswalk figure is white, the cars are simultaneously getting a green right arrow. as far as i know, this is supposed to indicate drivers can turn right without stopping. at no point does the pedestrian get the protection of being able to get to use the sidewalk without that green arrow telling cars to "go". it kinda makes me wonder what would motivate that kind of planning. seems kinda like never hinder the cars to me. it also seems to me that cars can inflict a whole lot more damage than a pedestrian. although the most direct application in this situation would be that two people running into each other would bump heads or maybe fall and skin a knee, this woman was really hurt/bleeding from being hit by this ONE TON PIECE OF METAL. seriously. i can also see how our current application of cars is causing a lot more damage than pedestrian in the world, what with the growing hole in the ozone, and the current war in iraq.
honestly, i can't totally commit to being anti-car, but i'm wondering why people feel so entitled by their cars, and the actual application/use of cars themselves. this guy was commuting by himself, as were the vast majority of people passing by in cars for the next 45min-hour i saw while i waited for the police to show up. (the ambulance showed up right away. oh, and a california highway patrol car randomly happened to pass during all this, and THEY JUST KEPT GOING. yes, precious, very nice....) maybe i'm way off here in my conceptualization of all of this, but if there were more peole in in each of the cars, there would be fewer cars, hence traffic would move easier, which would mean that people wouldn't have to be driving like maniacs with the possible reprecussion of hitting and perhaps killing pedestrians and/or bicyclists. this is just one minor example, and i'll spare you the ranting of others. however, i'm sure you're prolly able to come up with some yourself. or maybe you're more of the impression that this is a knee-jerk liberal reaction. i think that many times situations that exist at the more micro level are paralell and mirror situations that exist at a meta level.
Posted by Meagen at July 29, 2005 09:14 AM