| Walker Bashing | |
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What do talk show hosts have against pedestrians? A lot from the sound of it - in the past two months I have responded to rants by hosts of two local radio talk shows about pedestrian law enforcement stings. "Pedestrians have no rights to the road, pedestrians should yield to cars, " ranted Rick Emerson on his Portland-produced, nationally-syndicated radio show. He was incensed over the Portland police doing pedestrian crossing stings on October 4, which happened to be International Walk to School Day in 2000, the one day of the year that pedestrian safety is emphasized.
"The road belongs to cars. The road is not made for pedestrians, the road is made for cars," ranted Rick. He said that walkers should never cross intersections, except perhaps with the crossing signal, although he preferred there be no walkers crossing the road, ever.
As I happened to be in my own car with my cell phone, I called in. I pointed out that it was Walk to School Day. I also said that while it was great to cross with crossing lights, at most intersections in the suburbs there were no lights and pedestrians still had to cross. What else could you do but just keep turning right as you circle your own block, unable to cross the street?
Two months earlier on 750 KXL, my favorite hosts Dave and Dwight were also poking fun at the Vancouver police's sting of cars that failed to yield to pedestrians in a new lighted crosswalk. The crosswalk has blinking lights in a strip across the roadway as well as overhead lights that blink in a frenzy when a walker wants to cross to the park on the opposite side of the busy four-lane road. Failure to yield at this intersection would really require a brain-dead driver, likely the same sort of person who doesn't yield to school buses blinking their red lights.
I emailed Dave and Dwight protesting that I was instrumental in gaining Vancouver the Walkable Community Award in 1999, a great distinction that relies on improving pedestrian paths and promoting walking. Our Vancouver Discovery Walk Festival not only hosts over 1000 local walkers, but also hundreds of international walkers each year to enjoy the trails in Vancouver. Vancouver is committed to improving their pedestrian paths. Dave and Dwight replied by email that my note arrived too late for the show, but that they really did support pedestrian rights and enjoyed walking with their families. They just have a thing about poking fun at Vancouver at every chance.
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