With last weekend marking the end of daylight saving time, looking out the office window at 4PM and knowing it will be dark when you head home once again rears its head.

However, what should also rear its head is being safe when you’re out walking around town. Last night, as I waited for the bus, I noticed way too many people crossing at an unlit crosswalk wearing dark clothing. Buckets of rain + dark + cars/buses + not seen until it’s almost too late cyclists/pedestrians = an accident waiting to happen.

While I understand not everyone wants to sport a bright yellow rainjacket — and I include myself in that population — when it’s dark out, carry some sort of light-reflecting device so drivers and cyclists can see you. For example, I carry a small flashlight. It allows people to see me while allowing me to light the path and avoid huge puddles. (Wearing wet jeans is not fun.)

Also, for you cyclists…please, for the love of Tony Danza, don’t try commuting on a road like N. Williams without any reflector devices in place like I saw last night. Seriously, just take the bus home and be safe.

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Today I saw one.  I probably saw others, but today’s took the cake.  I’m not trying to be mean or judgemental.  This individual was a plain old chucklehead.

I was walking to coffee across the intersection (I had a walk sign) when I saw a rather well put together woman begin to cross against the walk sign going the other way.  When she got about 1/3 across, she realized cars were coming fast and did the “two step back-two step foward” move but sped up to cross the intersection right into the path of a fast moving bicyclist.  The cars were screeching to a halt and the bike was swerving to miss the lady.  I was standing there watching this all when I realized the woman was talking on her cell phone the whole damn time.

I almost caught up with her and told her how stupid she was, but then I remembered that it isn’t my place to save people from being a proud member of the Darwin Awards.

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On my way into the office this morning, I witnessed yet another near accident on NE MLK Blvd. A group of five bicyclists were waiting to cross in the crosswalk. They were all off their bikes. One car stops to let the group cross, but out of nowhere comes a red car that if that woman’s brakes weren’t in good order would have hit someone.

On the stretch of road between the lights located at NE Alberta and at NE Prescott, there’s a lined crosswalk with the appropriate street sign where drivers are supposed to stop when a pedestrian or bicyclist enters. Operative words are supposed to stop.

Sadly, most don’t and there have been many occasions where I’ve attempted to cross the same stretch of road, only to wait until there were no cars coming because no one stops. Worse, is when one lane of cars stops to let me cross, and either the car behind it swerves into the next lane to speed up and drive through, or the second lane fails to stop altogether.

Perhaps I should take comfort in the event I’m hit and injured/killed, the law would be on my side since cars are supposed to stop.

Those crosswalks are definitely needed on MLK Blvd, if only to stop pedestrians from illegally crossing the tree-lined barriers at other parts along the street. However, if drivers aren’t stopping for pedestrians or those on bikes where we’re legally supposed to cross, what else can be done?

Related Posts

• February 27, 2009 -- Oh yeah. People use bikes here too, don’t they? (2)
• November 4, 2008 -- Got a light? (3)
• September 11, 2008 -- Stupid people! (5)
• June 23, 2008 -- Sunday Parkways: Just the Beginning? (12)

Portland took a big stride (so to speak) yesterday and closed six miles of city streets to car traffic, enabling bicyclists and pedestrians to stroll freely down the middle of the road with little fear of vehicular homicide or road rage. The event, named Sunday Parkways, lasted from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. –a mere six hours of freedom from automotive dominance on a small portion of the city’s vast street network. It is my hope that Sunday Parkways will help Portlanders understand that the pain created by $4.50/gallon gasoline does not have to be so severe. Yes, we all experience this pain indirectly through food and other transportation hikes, but a large portion of personal trips taken via automobile simply don’t require that we burn petroleum. In fact, 50 percent of all car trips are less than two miles in total distance. I love traffic stats.

Regardless of its scale, Sunday Parkways was six hours of immense joy and immediately brought to mind my experience strolling down the streets of Amsterdam this past March, mixing rather effortlessly with streetcars, bicycles, pedestrians and the occasional automobile. Yes, we Americans have a way to go before we can get some folks to shed all the unnecessary spandex (what is this, the Giro?) and over-engineered bicycles (carbon Rolf wheels on a bike that rarely leaves the garage?), but hey, one Sunday for six hours is far more than I ever imagined we’d ever take away from the petroleum lifestyle that touches us all.

For me, Sunday Parkways was experienced in a far different fashion than I originally planned. I was going to take advantage of the opportunity to show Yuba Mundo utility bikes, extolling the virtues of living with the biking industry’s answer to the Ford Super Duty. Instead, I made an 11th hour decision to simply spend the time with my family as a pedestrian. With family in town from Idaho, I thought it a far better use of my time to show them that Portland is much more than a bicycle town; it’s a town that often thinks well beyond the gas pump, considering all modes of transportation, including the most basic of all: feet. Armed with three out-of-town guests, my wife, two daughters, a stroller and a book of Tri-Met tickets, we hopped from the red line MAX to the yellow line, then hoofed it across I-5 to Peninsula Park. From this point we were able to see just what is possible when the city takes the gloves off and let’s people just exist in their daily environment without the fear of automobiles. It also let us experience what it’s like when you let people have open access to hula-hoops and pumping techno.

I don’t hate automobiles. Heck, I logged 12 miles in a Zipcar later the same afternoon. Sunday Parkways isn’t about the like or dislike of automobiles; it’s far more important than something so visceral. Sunday Parkways represents a community’s attempt at envisioning something more for their home than that which every other city has. Sunday Parkways represents an acknowledgment that communities exist at street-level and at human-speed. Sunday Parkways represents a step towards communities that embrace a life that doesn’t rely so heavily on an unsustainable, environmentally irresponsible way of living –a way of living that we have fostered for far too long.

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