“I’m walkin’ here, I’m walkin here.”
A quote from the movie Midnight Cowboy, which was (trivia alert) the first X-rated movie to win the Oscar for Best Picture.
The quote was brought to mind by a couple of things I saw in Prince George in the space of about an hour recently, and on the same street.
I was driving east on 15th Avenue to come to the CFIS studio, and I saw a pedestrian crossing at one of the intersections where there is a crosswalk (even if you can’t see much of the paint these days). He was clearly limping, but was making good headway.
A truck in the lane next to me, the curb lane, didn’t slow down at all, apparently figuring since the pedestrian wasn’t going to be in front of his vehicle by the time he got to the intersection, why should he waste a few precious seconds waiting for the pedestrian?
I came to a stop in my lane, as did the next driver in line in the curb lane. They actually stopped a good distance back from the crosswalk, I assume to reassure the pedestrian that they were, in fact, stopping.
The pedestrian completed the crossing, and I continued on my way, having lost probably a whole four or five seconds out of my day.
About an hour later, heading west on 15th Avenue towards home, I saw another pedestrian near the Post Office.
There is a pedestrian-controlled light at the corner by the Post Office. This pedestrian, when I saw him, was standing on the median, having obviously crossed half the street going south, and was now waiting for a break in the traffic to get the other half done.
He was about 30 feet from the crosswalk.
I don’t know if he crossed where he did “to save time,” but I suggest he actually lost time by having to wait on the median.
So pedestrians, it’s always the motorist who’s in the wrong.
And motorists, it’s not always the pedestrian who is in the wrong.
