Idiot And Idioter

So I've explained how driving in Boston sucks and how walking in Boston also sucks. And when you combine the two elements, well, it makes for quite the interesting situation. In a city where cars don't even come close to following basic traffic rules, it is amazing how willing the walking public is willing to risk their lives by not following even basic common sense. Now, I've lived in a city that had hardcore jaywalking laws before (Seattle) and I certainly think that can be a little much. I mean, if you are at an intersection and have a "don't walk" sign but no cars are coming, I don't see the problem with going ahead and crossing the street. But you can get a ticket for that in Seattle. Boston is a place where this law might actually be a good idea. It's amazing to see what people will do in this town.

Now, most place where people walk against the light or in the middle of the street they are pretty smart about it. Not here man. I see people just walk across the street without even looking in the direction the traffic is coming. They might be on their cell phones, listening to their walkman, talking to a fellow walker or just looking down involved in thought. Seriously, I see people not even break stride like they are still on the sidewalk with no cars around even though they are walking across a city street. What's worse, I see people do this with their kids in tow. It is incredibly common to see people do it while pushing baby strollers in front of them. I'm not kidding about that. It is a very common sight. Even if they don't walk into traffic with the stroller, you'll still see them waiting off the curb to cross and the strollers will be sticking out into the road. I just want to kick these idiots. If you want to risk your life, cool. But you stick your baby out into Boston traffic like that?!?! I don't trust that I'm not going to get run over even if the car has the red light and these people act like they are walking in Venice (no cars) or something. And in this town not only do they not care, but I'm convinced they would rather hit you. Many times I've been crossing the street when I knew I had the room to get across before the car coming would get to me, when I've heard the driver gun the engine. It's like they think their in some crappy Sylvester Stallone death race movie.

But the cars are the worst though. There isn't a traffic law they won't break on a regular basis. A good friend of mine was visiting this weekend from Seattle and a point I was making about it happened right in front of us with just brilliant timing. We were waiting to cross the street and I was explaining to him that this isn't Seattle, so if you have the walk sign be sure to look really well before crossing because even if the light has been changed for even 5 or more seconds a car may still come blazing through. Right after I said it the light for the cross street turned red. Then there was a couple of second delay before our side turned green/walk. About two seconds after we got the walk a car went blazing through. Really, the car must have been two hundred feet before the intersection when he got a red light and he never even considered slowing down. It was absolutely perfect timing. It's good for an out of towner to see it right away so they know to watch their ass. And that's just one occasion. Almost every intersection in this town is "no turn on red" but you wouldn't know it. The number of times I've almost been hit from somebody turning against the red is staggering. I still can't believe they actually bother putting up those signs at intersections that say "yield to pedestrians when turning" because you never actually see that happen.

But the best is the crosswalks. Like California and Seattle, we have a lot of uncontrolled crosswalks with signs that say "Cars must yield to pedestrians in crosswalk. State Law." Now, in place like California, when you step into the crosswalk all of the cars see you and they stop. That's not the way it works here. If you want the cars to stop you have to physically put yourself in front of them. Really. So every time I need to cross the street at one of these I have to go right out in front of the crazy drivers.

This all makes for a very trying existence in Boston. Don't even get me started on what it's like to ride a bike in all this shit. I tried that all of about once and then put my bike in the basement about two years ago. I won't even try that again. The thing is, all of the things I've described to you about the whole Boston driving/walking thing happen right in front of cops all the time. I've seen the red lights run, the no turn on reds ignored, cars going the wrong way down a one-way, car double-parked and pedestrians in crosswalks almost run over in front of cops a bunch of times. Not once have I seen the cop do anything about it. Hell, a lot of the time they are the ones doing it.

And people wonder why I don't like to go outside anymore.