Open season on pedestrians?

Today, while running some errands downtown at lunchtime, I was nearly hit on two occasions by errant drivers. One apparently did not know what a crosswalk was for. She “parked” in it during a red light, even though pedestrians were already walking in it. The other evidently was having trouble wrapping his mind around the concept of a red light. He blithely cruised through one at Sixth and Walnut well after it turned.

You can’t just chalk this up to pre-Christmas distraction. It seems to happen more frequently these days downtown, especially during the morning commute. Illegal turns. Running red lights. Blocking crosswalks. Wrong-way driving on one-way streets. Goofy lane changes. The other morning I even saw one motorist drive backward a full block on Fourth Street to get to a parking garage he had overshot.

Drivers either are in too much of a hurry, don’t know traffic laws as they pertain to pedestrians, or simply don’t care. And as soon as it starts snowing, drivers act as if all traffic laws have been suspended.

Then there’s the pandemic of tailgating on the highways, but that’s another rant.

Sure, pedestrians perform their share of stupid tricks, darting into traffic and walking when they shouldn’t. But when they break the rules, they don’t have thousands of pounds of metal surrounding them – or the illusion of invulnerability that machinery gives them.

If I were governor, I might start by pushing for mandatory driver re-training and re-testing every so often at license renewal time.

As for cameras at red lights and other enforcement (read: revenue enhancement) gimmicks: In my pedestrian fantasy world, there would be tire-shredding spikes along the crosswalk lines to jut out when the light turns red, then retract when it turns green.

Cincinnati has a very walkable downtown. It’s a shame that thoughtless drivers can make it so pedestrian-unfriendly.