On Potentially Deadly Streets, Pedestrians and Drivers Alike Must Proceed With Caution
[This article could be written about Baltimore as well.]
by Marc Fisher - Washington Post
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Despite the jokes about how being hit by a bus is the quickest, easiest way to go, the blend of driver arrogance and pedestrian recklessness we've seen on local streets is downright scary. I watch my own kids crossing the street, and I realize that they, like me and probably most of you, too, are alive through some weird combination of luck and a sixth sense about when cars might be hurtling down the street. The kids' necks seem to be wired to turn in one direction at most; looking both ways is far too complex a maneuver.
It's not just kids, of course. I stood at Seventh Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, where two women were killed by a Metrobus this month, and watched pedestrians. Any relationship between the walk light and when people decided to cross the avenue was purely coincidental.
And the new "Turning Traffic Must Yield to Pedestrians" signs that the District put up for the benefit of Seventh Street motorists could just as well be pictures of a bunny for all the impact they're having.