> [robert parks]
> >taking turns, indicating your intentions, etc. improves traffic flow
> >and attitudes.
>
> Take the example of Gary Knight,
Great set of points, David. I repeat, Peter Ehrlich, I
agree with you that in the "real world" where drivers get it
all, pedestrians have to look out for themselves, but that
doesn't make it "right." I don't intend to become "dead
right", but I'll fight tooth and nail for more street space
for pedestrians and bicyclists.
(Also, bus drivers are something of a special case, at least
when they are driving the bus. If all I had to look out for
was busses, I'd be a happy man.)
As long as drivers get all the rights, and pedestrians and
bicyclists get close to none, people will get killed. I am
_very_ careful, but I've still had two or three very close
calls because it is impossible to be one-hundred precent
vigilant one-hundred percent of the time.
Drivers need to share more of the responsibility. They need
to _slow down_ in any area where there are pedestrians or
bicyclists. I repeat: if a pedestrian gets hit, since they
are by definition not doing anything dangerous, they are not
at fault. The driver, who is doing something that is very
dangerous, bears sole responsibility, and if they failed to
see, they were going _too fast_.
There need to be some streets where non-drivers can do their
stuff without being always on guard. Surely, in all the
hundreds of north-south and east-west lanes in this city, we
can spare a few for pedestrians, a few for bicyclists, and a
few for busses. Drivers should not get it all.
-- _________________________ Donald F. Robertson San Franciscodonaldrf@hooked.net
Donald's Space Exploration page: http://www.hooked.net/~donaldrf/index.html
The known is finite, the unknown is infinite; intellectually we stand on an islet in the midst of an illimitable ocean of inexplicability. Our business in every generation is to reclaim a little more land. -- Thomas Huxley.