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I've never really understood the concept of vehicles having to yield to pedestrians, at least from a practical safety stand point. A pedestrian is a hell of a lot more maneuverable and able to stop much quicker than a one ton+ hunk of metal with momentum. Not to mention a pedestrian possesses the ability for a greater field of vision than someone sitting in a car. Feel free to point out the error of my logic.
Cars and pedestrians (and bicycles) are a dangerous mix. It's testament to good sense, common decency and sobriety that even more pedestrians aren't killed and injured by being struck by motor vehicles.
I expect there to come a day when people look back on how we got around in the late 20th and early 21st centuries and shake their heads at the dangers to which we routinely subjected ourselves.
Is it too obvious to state that pedestrians are much, much, much more vulnerable to serious injury than are the occupants of the vehicles which might collide with them?
I don't absolve pedestrians of their duty to obey traffic laws (don't cross in the middle of the block or against the light, etc.) nor their obligation to pay attention to what is happening in the physical space they're occupying at any given moment (in other words, not fiddling with their smart phones while crossing the street).
I prefer the custom in the Seattle area. Wheelchair users in particular, whose view of the traffic isn't that of a standing person, and who can't jump out of the way of a car operated by an inattentive driver, owe their very lives to that way of doing things. From this avid motorist's perspective (why walk anywhere you could drive?), the inconvenience of stopping for pedestrians at crosswalks and intersections is a small price to pay.
EDIT: A friend just posted on her Facebook page that she damn near hit a pedestrian while driving to work today. The pedestrian was wearing headphones and was oblivious to nearly being run over. This friend is a very pleasant woman whose life would have been made much more difficult by the carelessness of a person who stepped out in front of her car as if it weren't there. Good for that pedestrian that my friend was minding the road and not her text messages.
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