I must say I am pleasantly surprised by the personal impact (on me) of the new crosswalks on NW 23rd.
Now I’m a fairly assertive pedestrian. I’ll walk out into a crosswalk if there is a reasonable gap and hold out my hand to stop the cars (as is my right under Oregon law if they are more than 50 feet from the intersection). Interestingly that gesture is now in the process of being encapsulated in Oregon law.
Anyway, what I find with the new crosswalks is that I’m doing this more frequently, and with the cars perhaps a little closer. It’s as though the crosswalks have shifted the balance of power between me and the cars.
9 responses to “Feeling Empowered”
I dig the new crosswalks and curb extensions too. Not that I’m going to go barging out into traffic (I’d rather the dangerous objects go by first – saves gas, time, and reduces my danger) even at a crosswalk.
As for that hand sign mess, that is just encouraging more people to get themselves ran over. Do people really think these laws through? I mean, what happens when you give someone a false sense of security, then some idiot cell phone yapper comes barreling down and plummets them with their ton car? That mythical pedestrian power doesn’t amount of crap if you get hit.
…speaking from slight experience here, I tend to be a brave road crosser (you have to be in other areas of the country) and thus I’ve been hit a few times – IN LEGAL CROSSWALK ZONES MIND YOU. Just a few months back I got whacked pretty firmly by a cell phone talking soccer mom in a Ford Expedition. Fortunately I realized at the last second she wasn’t paying attention and lept up so I wouldn’t be thrown to the ground.
I ended up taking a short hood ride, left a few dents, and hopefully taught someone that it isn’t a good idea to blab on a cell phone while poking around a residential are in an SUV.
I mean really, the functional equivalent is walking around waving a fully loaded gun with the safety off with the trigger finger in the loop…
…but that’s actually probablly a LOT safer statistically.
So let’s ban all cell phone usage in cars.
I also use this signal and agressively assert my right to cross busy streets. That said, you can’t just put your hand up and start walking. You gotta at least have some sign that the cars see you and have begun to slow down, or are way far off enough to react…
You gotta at least have some sign that the cars see you and have begun to slow down, or are way far off enough to react…
Eye contact is essential!
I would note that the hand signal also easily transitions into a friendly wave :-)
I deliver for FedEx throughout inner-SE daily, and I wish more people would raise their hand to create some sort of attention that they are wanting to cross. Drive down Hawthorne or Belmont, you’ll see MANY people standing on the sidewalk’s edge, I’m forced to figure out which ones are standing there and which are wanting to cross.
Even though I drive a big delivery truck on a schedule, I still go out of my way to contribute towards a pedestrian-friendly environment by paying extra attention to walkers and bicyclists.
A wave will go a long ways!
a false sense of security
I think people should be fined $100 every time they use that bs term. The issue is not, and never has been about “false” security…you’re not safe crossing at signalized intersections with marked crosswalks either. So what? The point is to give the pedestrian more of an edge, not to promise them absolute safety.
What studies have found, Chris, is that in areas with marked crosswalks, drivers tend to slow down even in the absence of pedestrians. They are a reminder that the road doesn’t just belong to automobiles. We need to insist on MORE marked crosswalks, which until recently, PDOT was ideologically opposed to.
I always wave –and thank– drivers who stop. And I also get frustrated with pedestrians who are just standing there and you can’t gauge their intentions from behind the wheel. Codifying communication tools –like, hey, hand signals– is a very, very good idea.
Off topic, but we’ve discussed it before…the idea of setting prices high enough in Manhattan to provide on-street parking everywhere…I’m visitng my daughter here and this city remains a city divided: got a limo and a driver and those cars are lined up where it ain’t even legal to stand let alone park. Cops didn’t enforce the law back when I left here in the 70s, and they still don’t now. And why should they…they continue to run lights and park on the sidewalks with absolute immunity. The arrogance of money and power.
The point of me stating “a false sense of security” IS a huge point. Nice suggesting immediate government fine against my freedom of speech, stating something that really, honestly, should be beyond obvious! That I find, exhaustively offensive. But I’ve found slowly but surely that Portland actually has a far more oppressive speech code among debate and argument than I ever realized. I had thought it was an open and liberal state and have found many ideas immediately cast out and tossed into the waste basket. Maybe it’s Portland Ego or The Portland Aloof. A reminder, Portland doesn’t do EVERYTHING right, just a lot.
But I digress. “A false sense of security” IS a concern because it perpetuates pedestrians “accidentally” get themselves into bad situations. I don’t want to hear news reports like, “Two Pedestrians Injured, One Dead” with subsequent causes stated as “I thought I had the right of way.” with drivers saying, “They didn’t even look, they just walked into the road and raised their hands!”
Point being, attempting to write laws to subvert and completely alter human nature is difficult, designing streets and such with crosswalks and things that cause humans to react more defensively are good.
Force bad. Ease of use good. Dead pedestrians bad. Observant drivers good.
Didn’t Washington state just make cell phones illegal to use while driving w/out a hands-free set? I remember reading about this a week or two ago. But they’ll only ticket you if they pull you over for something else.
I have mixed feelings about this one. On long, boring drives on the highway with little traffic and a good hour-plus journey, I don’t see it as dangerous as chatting on the phone while plowing through a school zone on 23rd… and considering that I, too have been hit by not-paying attention idiots, I’d be in favor of the ‘chopping off of the hands’ as fair and equal punishment.