Remove Upper State Crosswalks

When the woman was run down by a driver who “didn’t check to see if anyone was walking,” I wonder how the driver of the car that stopped felt? If it were me, I would feel that I was, in part, responsible for the accident. That is too heavy a burden to inflict on a person who was just following state law.

The law giving the pedestrian at an intersection the right of way is a bad law for two reasons:

1) It gives pedestrians a false sense of security. They may not stop to think that the driver they are stepping out in front of might be from another state where no such law exists.

2) It puts a difficult burden on the driver to interpret the body language of pedestrians loitering at intersections. How many times can you stop for persons who don’t want to cross before you will begin to assume that no crossing is intended? And then you become liable to being cited in a sting operation by the police, if not actually colliding with a pedestrian.

At a “crossing” like the one at State Street and Calle Palo Colorado, I would either wait for a safe lull in traffic, or I would walk to the nearest corner with a traffic light. I would be even more careful at the “crossing” at State and Calle Crespis, which is insanely dangerous for anyone crossing from west to east, because they cannot see around the blind curve on State Street. But I have actually seen people doing this!

Both of these “crossings” are close to intersections with traffic signals. It would be a big step toward safety if they were removed.