How many times did you go through a yellow light last week? Did the light turn red before you cleared the intersection? Stop it. Yellow means slow down and stop if possible, the light is going to turn red. Seriously, stop it. Walking to dinner a few weeks ago, a friend of mine snatched me back on the sidewalk twice when cars ran through the red light at high speed. No, I didn’t learn, because it happened a third time walking back. Let’s talk. Do you go through the yellow light rationalizing there is a delay between the red light and the opposite light turning green? Are you blaming the driver behind you don’t keep going, you’ll get rear ended? Stop. If you speed up when you see a yellow light, you are wrong. Period. That’s how a friend of mine ended up in the hospital. A driver accelerated, plowed through a yellow light as it turned red. The walk signal beep to go and my friend was hit. The typical light cycle is 120 seconds; the longest you would sit at a light is 2 minutes. This driver put someone in the hospital, and in a cast for 4 months because he couldn’t be bothered to wait a maximum of 2 minutes. I guess it should be no surprise that this was a hit and run, he driver couldn’t be bothered to stop after he hit someone either.
Are we starting to see pedestrian road rage? Several hospital staff commented on the increase of pedestrians being clipped by motorists in the same manner. I walk a lot and I wait for the white man and the beep to cross the street as does my friend. He was not talking or looking at a cell phone; just waiting for our signal to go. Pedestrian deaths were up 35 percent last year, compared to a decade ago. The comfortable response by drivers is, people are on their phones and not paying attention to where they are walking, but that’s not it. It’s the drivers. There are more SUVs and regions that do not prioritize walking. If you are hit by an SUV, you are 3 times ore likely to die than by car. Last year, 6,227 pedestrians were killed by drovers. That number does not include injuries. The faster the car is going, the more serious the injury, yet, when drivers see a yellow light, many of them accelerate. Speed is dangerous, stop.
Yellow is a warning and in the case of drivers, often ignored. This week, notice, are there warning you regularly ignore? Do you rationalize or just feel those rules do not apply to you? What is your relationship with warnings? Do you need to stop?
P.S. Yes, I have relearned, look both ways before crossing the street.
Balancing on Unstable Surfaces 