Pity the Harrisburg pedestrian
A few days ago, I had my latest near-death experience with a car.
I was leaving the Patriot-News building at 812 Market Street around 4:30 p.m. to walk home. Typically I cross Market Street in front of the building at the pedestrian crosswalk. The newspaper, at its own expense, details one of its security guards be a crossing guard here for about an hour in the morning and at quitting time for the day shift. He will walk out into the street and stop traffic so pedestrians can cross the busy street. I'm convinced this service has saved somebody's life. Many Harrisburg drivers have little regard for pedestrians and seem to have no understanding that they are required by law to stop for people in crosswalks. Those traffic cones that proclaim that rule might as well be invisible.
Either I was early or the guard was late, but there was no crossing guard and traffic was whizzing by. The westbound lane was clear, but several vehicles were approaching on the eastbound side. The problem is that at this hour, you can wait forever and it willl never completely clear in both directions. So I walked out into the crosswalk, waving my umbrella to make sure they saw me. Two of the drivers stopped as I approached the middle of the street. I was hopeful. Then as I was about to continue across a third car, driven by a dark-haired woman behind heavily tinted windows, came speeding toward me and whizzed in front of me without even a pause. I yelled at her, but that's like, well, shouting in the wind.
I cross there to avoid the intersection on the north side of Fifth and Market, a notoriously difficult one to cross during rush hour because drivers are turning both left and right onto Fifth, and even if you have the light they will make a right turn on red. You have to look in two directions at once to make sure you're not about to be run over.
The intersection at Fifth and Walnut Streets a block away used to be horrible, but a couple of years ago a traffic light was installed, which raised its status to "risky." The mian problem here is drivers heading north in the right lane of Fifth and making a right on Walnut. Some will stop to let pedestrians cross. I've had drivers refuse to stop, heading right at me in the crosswalk. Some think it's perfectly okay to whiz in front of pedestrians, apparently reasoning that as long as they don't hit someone, they're within the law.
Police are never there when you need them, and I doubt any driver is ever pulled over and ticketed for risky behavior toward pedestrians. I actually had a Capitol police officer yell at me and order me OUT OF THE CROSSWALK so a driver could pass. A legislator, no doubt.
My anger toward drivers has to be tempered by the fact that physics are not on my side. In a head-on confrontation, I lose. Are drivers-ed instructors doing anything to educate their students about being safe around pedestrians?