Walking downtown Vancouver can be a life-threatening adventure. If you don’t expire from the second-hand smoke of the walking cigarette brigade, you run the risk of being bowled over by vehicles piloted by texting drivers.
That’s not the worst of it. Walking in a crosswalk is a tricky enough thing in Vancouver; motorists nudge beyond the lines, no matter how many people are crossing. It’s not unusual to feel a (virtual) bumper on your leg before you reach the other side. It’s the texters that get me, though and I’m glad to see that cops are cracking down. But jaywalking?
Because of the aggessive, inattentive drivers and dangerous crosswalks (and paucity of police), pedestrians in Vancouver jaywalk. A lot. It’s safer to scout out lights and cross in the middle of a block when the traffic is stopped. But that may be over. Yesterday outside my building, a gentlemen crossing the street on a red light was ‘pulled over’ by a motorcycle cop and given a ticket. I couldn’t believe it. Now I read that Vancouver police are taking seriously not just texting drivers but jaywalkers but also cyclists.
Perhaps the money being used to address jaywalking would be better used to educate drivers, don’t you think?
