There are more pedestrians on the sidewalks of Prince George these days, and that means there are certain problem pedestrians who seem to crop up every year.
One new one this year, actually, was a group I saw last week. I was getting ready to leave a parking lot when I saw a group of (I’m guessing) teenagers. There were three of them on the sidewalk, then a little ways behind them was a fourth, and some distance behind him, a fifth.
I figured they were together because the group in front kept telling the other two to catch up, which I didn’t have a problem with.
What I did have a problem with was it looked like they had stopped to talk to the others right in the middle of the driveway exit I was shortly going to be using. Not the best place to hold a conference, to my way of thinking, knowing what some Prince George drivers are like.
By the time I got to the exit, however, the three had actually gone back the way they had come on the sidewalk to join their friends.
Another form of pedestrian which seems to be becoming more frequent each year is the ‘No-look Street Crosser.’ A lot of times, a pedestrian (or a couple of them) will come to an intersection and just walk right out into it without looking. And no, they aren’t all on handheld devices (although a majority are).
They just seem to figure they can walk across the road anywhere they want with no consideration for oncoming traffic.
The polar opposite of the ‘No-look Street Crosser” is the ‘Non-street Crosser’. This is the person who stands at the corner of the intersection either talking on their cellphone or staring intently at their handheld device, with oncoming motorists having no clue what the pedestrian is going to do. (To be honest, there are times I think the pedestrian also has no idea what they’re going to do.)
What makes it even scarier for motorists is when the ‘Non-street Crosser’ finishes whatever they were doing, and frequently becomes a ‘No-look Street Crosser’, putting away their handheld device and immediately walking into the intersection.
So motorists, keep your eyes open for these pedestrians. It sometimes seems they’re trying to make themselves an endangered species, but we don’t need to help.
One thought on “The problem with Problem Pedestrians”
What is really scary is when a pedestrian is crossing the street and the vehicle decides they should have the right of way and goes instead. People have to cross where they can because the drivers in this place are out of control and think the rules don’t apply to them. If cops decided to actually police traffic instead of harassing homeless people, they’d make a killing.