Mean streets and privileged pedestrians

By BEN OLSON/for The Herald  —  There was a time, as a youngster, when crossing the street meant waiting for a gap in traffic. The cars did not stop for you, crosswalk notwithstanding. It has taken several generations to get the majority of drivers to yield to pedestrians. I can still remember my grandfather cursing people that were walking because they were impeding traffic, specifically him. Knowing that you may be subject to a $250 fine for failing to yield to a pedestrian or cyclist has probably helped facilitate the change in attitudes.

The fact that drivers are legally obligated to yield to pedestrians has created a generation that is naively presumptuous. Because most drivers will stop for someone in the crosswalk, stepping off the curb, while staring intently at your phone is just asking for trouble. It could be that people amusing themselves with their phones in public is a sign of the end times. The prophets writing the Old Testament just didn’t have the words to describe it. It saddens me to see what the advent of the smartphone has done to distract people from the real world that surrounds them. 

Yielding to pedestrians and cyclists is the proper and legal thing to do. However, I have trouble conjuring up sympathy for cyclists who want to “share the road”, but then don’t follow the rules. That stop sign is for all of us. I signal my intentions, you should, as well. I pay license and registration fees, plus 56 cents a gallon in taxes for my fuel. Oregon cyclists who are 18 years of age or older are supposed to pay a $10 registration fee for using public roads. To me, that certainly seems reasonable. I’m curious if that’s a law that is being enforced.

I got to thinking about the relationship between pedestrians and motorists while on my recent trip to Mexico. If you’re not paying attention there, you will get run over, and it will be your own darned fault. Drivers tend to be aggressive, by American standards, and like to go fast. They do not yield to pedestrians, bikes or smaller vehicles. Sidewalks are intermittent, sometimes crowded, and sometimes blocked. You could not push your grandmother around in a wheelchair there. Much of the time, you are walking on the road, ever vigilant about the traffic.

Only a fool would consider sending a text while walking the streets of a Mexican tourist town. Americans driving here know they don’t have to follow the rules they’re used to back home. You don’t dare step in front of an American Expat driving a golf cart down the street here. They’ve reverted to America, circa 1966.

I have effectively used my bully pulpit to complain again. In a perfect world, everyone would slow down. They would allow sufficient time to get where they’re going. They would dim their lights when approaching (or following) another car at night. They would back off from my rear bumper a few more car lengths. They would be kinder and more tolerant of other drivers out on the road. I’ll never change the way people drive in Mexico- they don’t put my column in the Puerto Vallarta Gazette. I’ll never change the way people drive in Lane County, Oregon, either. It’s just a dream of mine that this change will somehow, magically, come over everyone, all at once.

There’s a bumper sticker that says, “hang up your phone and drive.” Is there a corresponding one that says, “put your phone in your pocket and walk”?