Certainly there are more crucial issues facing our nation and our imperiled planet than traffic conditions and crossing guards. For many of us who have to drive daily, though, it's become a literal matter of life and death.
For no good reason, of course. People run stop signs and traffic signals for the same reason they cut in line and carry on cell phone conversations in movie theaters. They are inconsiderate and self-centered. You do not matter to these people; you are not worthy of consideration.
You are in their way.
There's an intersection we pass through every workday, where a two-lane state highway crosses the four-lane we take. Two schools, an elementary and a middle-and-high school, are inexplicably situated there, miles from anything but the most heavily-traveled road in the area. Traffic on the two-lane, north-south road has stop signs in both directions. They are supposed to yield to traffic on the four-lane.
And yet, it is a rare day that at least one driver doesn't pull out in front of us off that road. (Usually without signaling, often pulling across both lanes to take the passing lane.) While I have no statistics to verify, my ten-times-a-week observations would indicate that 100% of the collisions that occur at this intersection are due to failure to stop by north-south traffic.
The state highway department's solution to the epidemic of collisions has been to:
- reduce the speed limit on the four-lane to 55 mph in the school area, which makes some sense, and
- install rumble strips to slow traffic and warn them of the upcoming intersection.
Isn't this a little like imprisoning victims to prevent them from being victimized again?
While the perps go free.
