Near Misses

Twice on his morning walk today, Your Boulevardier was nearly struck by cars while in a crosswalk. Both episodes happened when drivers were making right turns on red lights; both rolled through the crosswalks and were looking left for cross traffic, not seeing the pedestrian -- yours truly -- approaching from the right. In both circumstances, the drivers did not seem to acknowledge the fact that they endangered a person. And in both circumstances, law enforcement was nowhere nearby.

After the second incident, which was frighteningly close and in which the car was traveling at very high speed, Your Boulevardier started to imagine elaborate revenge fantasies. If only he had had a few pieces of very ripe fruit at the ready to lob at the cars! Better: if only he had had a squirt bottle of garish nail polish to squirt on the passing car! (Best case scenario in this version would be that the driver would not notice the polish until later in the day, when the enamel had hardened to an industrial-strength sheen.) Or maybe this: one could roll a watermelon under the car as it passed, then quickly sit on the ground; the driver would feel a bump, look in his rearview, see a red splat and a person, and have a heart attack.

A deep breath is called for. Two wrongs don't make a right.

Motorists, please remember California Vehicle Code section 21453(b), which includes this language: "A driver making [a right turn on a red light] shall yield the right-of-way to pedestrians lawfully within an adjacent crosswalk".