Crossing the street today, I was nearly run down by, not one, but several vehicles. One of them honked at me, and the driver yelled, “Get out of the road!” Now, you’d think by their reactions I was jaywalking or something, and were that the case, their reactions would be justified. But this is a major intersection, five lanes wide, and heavily traveled. I always make a point of calling for the walk signal and waiting for it, and today was no exception. What it boiled down to was impatient drivers with no respect for the crosswalk and pedestrians with the right of way. Needless to say, I was somewhat annoyed and was careful to watch out for the mad drivers, since they clearly weren’t going to watch out for me. It’s a shame that drivers don’t seem to have much respect for traffic laws, particularly those that protect pedestrians.
