Crossing the Common Sense Line

Every day millions of people cross crosswalks every day, whether they cross the crowded streets of New York to get to work or cross the deserted local road to get to their local Grocery store. In today’s society most people understand the concept that cars weigh over two tons and will easily kill you if you are hit by one and that you stand no chance at all against one. But still, According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2010 there were 4,280 pedestrians killed due to car accidents. Granted some of these are caused due to a rare chance of car failure leaving the driver unable to control the car or the driver is intoxicated. But those two scenarios are on the lower side of why these traffic accidents. So the big question is why do so many pedestrians get hit during each year.

Do crosswalks give people the false connotation of that they are safe in when they are crossing the cross walk, or do people get a sense of security that nothing could possible go wrong even when they have the right of away? Well due to the fact that there is a law that states when there is a pedestrian standing at the crosswalk, they automatically have the right of way. Whether the pedestrian is going to cross the street or not, they still have the right of way, so the crack addicted bum, a jogger, mom pushing a stroller or mailman, will have the right of way and you must yield to them by law even though you are driving a weapon that can easily take the life out of anything in its way, (some more than others) that is larger than the pedestrian, faster and heavier than the pedestrian. So because there is a law saying that pedestrians have the right of way and you must yield to them that might give the person attempting to cross the street that they are safe and that all the cars will stop for them.

Something else that might cause the pedestrians traffic accidents to go up is the fact that most people that drive now, that used to drive, or are learning to drive, know that there are so many distractions that you must watch out for when you drive. Drivers must: look for stop signs, watch traffic lights, watch the other cars around you, watch the mirrors to see your surroundings, make sure you are not spilling your morning coffee as you drive to work, make sure you are staying at the speed limit, watch for cops or emergency vehicles that may be responding to an emergency, and most of all keep in tune to you Taylor Swift that you are attempting to sing along with. All in all there are so many distractions that you must watch out for, and the pedestrians laws just add more dangers and opportunities for events to go south in a hurry.

To further my research to attempt to find any other possible reasons, that would cause someone to get hit by a car, I conducted a survey amongst my class to find out what they think about crosswalks and how they treat them. Question number one. “How often do you cross at crosswalks”
A. A lot B. Sometimes C. Rarely. Five students said they use crosswalks a lot, and 4 of them said sometimes, and 6 of them said rarely. The majority of the students sometimes to rarely crosswalks, so how come there are so many accidents? Question number two. “If you need to cross the street, will you just run across where you are or will you go to the nearest cross walk? Seventy three percent of the students said they would just run across the street where they are. That left only twenty seven percent of the class that would go to a crosswalk then cross. That could be a large factor, because if people just run across without looking, they are more susceptible to being hit because drivers will most likely be expecting people to cross at a crosswalk. Question number three. “Do you think pedestrians should have the right away when they are crossing the street and why?” This time Seventy three percent said that pedestrians should have the right of way, with only twenty seven percent of the class said that pedestrians should not have the right of way. Because seventy three percent of the class said that pedestrians should have the right of way, shows me that people do think that it is safer to cross the street, giving them this false idea that thy are greater than the car.

I also asked a few fellow class mates what are their general opinions on crosswalks. These are the following responses I received. “I think crosswalks are a smart idea, but most people that use them are stupid” these great words of wisdom came from the one and only Kyle Wilson. “They help people get across the crowded streets” Marry Polgar. “They help you cross the street without being hit.” Ty Yeakly. “They help you get from point A to point B” From the mastermind Alec Circa. From these general opinions of crosswalks, people think that crosswalks are a helpful thing and they are necessary.

All together through my research I have come up with several conclusions, and a plausible solution. Basically a lot of people think that crosswalks give them a special power to cross safely, this is re-enforced with an all-inclusive law to back up pedestrians, training them that they have the right away. Also because a lot of people would just run across the street rather than go to a crosswalk, increases their chances of getting hit. My plausible solution to at least lower the death and injury rate of pedestrians, is to simple abolish the pedestrian right away law by doing this you make pedestrians think twice about just crossing the street, with this “power” that nothing will happen to them. Yes it would be extremely costly to take down thousands of “ped xing” signs but it would hopefully save lives in the end.