Like I said…

I thought this post on the Chron blogs was interesting, especially in light of my earlier post this week about cultural traffic calming. When talking about the experience of walking a few blocks from her parking area to City Hall, Tara had this to say:

…I realized it is not the walk that bothers me, it is the lack of safety.  Several other experiences make me believe this is a much greater issue than providing customer service and a short ride in the air conditioning on a humid day.  Walking to a restaurant this past weekend with some friends, we were heckled, called “Jesus freaks,” flicked off, and almost hit by a car turning right when we had the right-of-way.

Drivers in Houston become annoyed when people walk across the cross-walk, especially if this happens during traffic in the morning or after work.  Drivers vilify pedestrians, and, as a result, do not watch for them or respect them.  As I think back, every time a driver almost hit me they rolled their eyes and stared me down as I walked across the street (not to mention I had the green light).

Now, my personal experiences have not been quite that bad. I don’t recall ever being actively heckled for walking someplace, but I have been bumped by a car before only to have the driver yell at me for crossing the street in the crosswalk during the walk cycle.

The best comment on the post, however, was this one:

As a former paramedic who drove an ambulance, I can verify that drivers in this city have no respect for emergency vehicles, either. With my lights flashing and sirens blaring, they tailgated, turned directly in front of me, would not yield, and even refused to allow me to change lanes. It was enough to initiate cardiac arrest – in me. 

I used to think maybe people were just oblivious, but I no longer think that is the case. In simple terms, I think all of this is a result of rude, uncaring selfishness . . .

This is the typical result of people being empowered (driving a car) while remaining anonymous. There are lots of things we could do about this:

1. We could do like Los Angeles, paint crosswalks red (at least they are this way in Downtown, I haven’t been all over LA) and ticket any drivers who stop in the crosswalk.

This begins to send a signal to drivers that as far as the law is concerned the rights of pedestrians are paramount. In this case the fines aren’t important, it’s the strong signal from the top that the city cares about pedestrians.

2. We could do like Antanas Mockus and find a way to publically condemn rude drivers.

How about we set up a service through the police department where anyone can write down the license plate number of a driver that did something rude or offensive, and the police will record the incident and sent a letter to the vehicle owner informing them that their rude driving has been noted and is not appreciated. If they accumulate 3 rude driving citations they have to put a sign in front of their home (front yard or front door of an apartment / condo) that says they have be cited for rudeness. If they accumulate 5 rude driving citations they have to put one of those magnetic lights on their car that blinks white, and stickers on the front and back that say “RUDE DRIVER”. The signs stay up until 6 months have passed without an infraction and they’ve taken a defensive driving class.

You know, this kind of discipline would probably be vastly more effective than issuing fines. The lack of accountability for bad drivers is really unbearable, but we have no reason to expect it will change unless we do something to adress the root cause:

People here culturally accept that the road is only for cars, and that the road is for going as fast as you can get away with. Anything that get’s in your way or slows you down is a nuisance to be ridiculed with hopes that it will go away.

We have to change the culture if we want to improve safety. If our current laws and proceedures aren’t getting it done, then it’s time we think outside the box.