As school begins momentarily, I have a request - Parents, please be an example for your children. Teach them about looking at the world around them. Teach them about signs.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, it's appalling how drivers disregard signs. (Yes, I do speed.) Stopping when there aren't any stop signs, going through stop signs that are there, etc.
Drivers need to obey signs. However, non-drivers, i.e. walkers & cyclists need to obey them as well.
A young person was injured by my house this month while biking across the street on a Don't Walk signal.
I used to ride my bike across the railroad tracks in Gaithersburg during rush hour. My best friend & I didn't tell our parents (well, I told my mom a few weeks ago). The reason why we didn't is that she & I knew we were in the wrong. That we were doing something dangerous. We took risks, but we tried to time the light & obviously we heard the train signals. If we had been injured, both of us would have taken the punishment of our parents & admitted our guilt & culpability in our injury. We knew we were being daredevils. I'd have whined a little, but we knew.
This week, I have seen 3 instances of poor decisions on Columbia roadways that scare the crap out of me. Two people, who looked older than me, jaywalked on Harper's Farm by the Athletic Club. The car next to me stopped, despite having the green light. I honked, not a surprise, and these people gave me the finger. I was not the one violating the traffic laws.
Coming down Columbia Rd. by 7-11 is a very scary thing. People constantly cross there - despite there being a pedestrian bridge! There's a hill & a curve. Why do people do this?
hocoblogs@@@
2 comments:
Years ago, when good friends with a woman my age who never owned a car and walked most everywhere, I recall her saying something that deeply impacted me. She was always one to obey traffic signals and never to jay walk, even in her home neighborhood where she lived. She said, ‘In history, when flesh and metal clash, metal usually wins."
I have passion about the same subject - http://hometowncolumbia.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/she-was-almost-toast/
and
http://hometowncolumbia.wordpress.com/2009/10/25/rules-and-agreements/
I try to catch people's eyes when I'm walking. If I don't feel like that's achieved, I don't cross.
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