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Reader says I urge some of you road warriors to actually spend some time trying to use crosswalks during busy times

DecorativeCrosswalks006_theridgewoodblog

This subject comes up about every two months and the resulting comments are always the same. We get a few sensible comments but they are drowned out with these made-up and exaggerated accounts of dodging pedestrians who run out, some putting on make-up, some are texting. I’m not suggesting that some pedestrians aren’t reckless but these stories are simply untrue. They are the same stereotypical stories of teenagers driving while applying make-up or aggressive, latte-sipping moms from the Heights in their big SUVs.

I urge some of you road warriors to actually spend some time trying to use crosswalks during busy times. It’s not a case of waiting for that one car to pass by before crossing. Traffic is heavy, and it comes in multiple directions. One lane might stop for the waiting pedestrian, but the other lane does not. Stopped driver gets frustrated and thinks the pedestrian is being stupid for not crossing, so he shakes his head and drivers on.

It’s not that simple. It’s easy to say just wait, but that often isn’t practical. The only real safe way to solve this would be to have traffic lights at every crossing. The downsides of this, however, would be massive costs and massive traffic congestion while the generally free-flowing traffic is caught up in multiple traffic lights.