The Weekly Rant

Starting this week I think I’ll add a “weekly Rant”.

This week’s rant has been on my mind for some time now and it’s to do with Marked /Unmarked Crosswalks. If you run downtown at lunchtime you must at some point cross the street at an intersection. If like me your daily run takes you by Churchill square and Canada place you’ll know how crazy it can crossing any of those crosswalks within a 3 block radius of the Canada place building. It is almost a daily experience between the hours of 12:00pm and 1:00pm that I see people (myself included) almost hit by cars. If the Air Transport Safety board knew of the sheer number of near misses that occur on a daily basis, they would investigate and then close that area down. It can’t just pedestrians fault as I’ve walked across the lights with the white man up there and someone in either a minivan or a pickup truck decides that they are not stopping, like today when I point to the lights which were in my favour she just stared at me blankly. The worst crosswalks are definitely the unmarked ones as again (maybe it’s the minivan and pickup) don’t even look to see if anyone is crossing. I even had one lady see me but wave me off as she drove through the cross walk without slowing down.


What is worse is when you graciously point out that you are in the crosswalk and the White man is there or you’re in the crosswalk and more than halfway across the road, drivers of said minivans and pickups get very upset, not because they almost hit you. but the fact that you are reminding them who has the right of way. Are there prizes for almost hitting pedestrians? Is this how Deer feel when they get trapped in a cars headlights?


In true Edmonton fashion the drivers argument (from reading about cars hitting people or cyclists in the Journal) is that it’s almost always the pedestrians or cyclists fault. Don’t believe me – Next time there is some killed in a crosswalk or on a bike read the comments section under the story.


And I'm done......til next week!!!