CROSSING MAIN STREET – UPDATE

CROSSING MAIN STREET – UPDATE

A couple of weeks ago I posted about a letter written by a slightly over-enthusiastic resident my little town. 
http://joeh-crankyoldman.blogspot.com/2011/12/crossing-main-street.html
The letter was directed at the tragically unsafe situation in town of crossing Main Street.  She is so concerned about this issue that her children wear yellow reflective safety vests and bright traffic-cone orange hats before venturing into town.  She claims she has almost been killed twice trying to cross Main Street.

The section of Main Street which she was concerned about is less than four blocks long.  There are two traffic lights along this stretch.  The two blocks without a traffic light have a cross-walk with a pedestrian button which when pressed initiates a series of lights along the crossing walk alerting cars to stop.  Cars that do not stop for pedestrians are subject to a moving violation ticket.   A sign in the middle of the road makes this fact clear.

With the possible exception of a drunken lunatic running a light at 50 miles per hour, which is almost impossible in normal hours, crossing Main Street is very safe. 

I recently read that this concerned citizen has been appointed to the town Traffic and Transportation Commission. 

This is what makes me nervous about government.

Write a hysterical letter about the danger of crossing four blocks of Main Street in this tiny one mile in diameter town of 15 thousand people and you end up on the Traffic and Transportation Commission. 

Why does this town even have a Traffic and Transportation Commission? 

Who on this commission is going to stand up to this lady and challenge her sanity with regard to the difficulty of safely crossing Main Street?  How much will this town spend on ridiculous new regulations to placate this over-enthusiastic (trying to be nice here) resident?

Will we have crossing guards all day every day (not just for school) at every intersection?  Will every child under 13 be required to wear a yellow reflective safety vest and orange cone hat?  Will cars even be allowed on Main Street (one resident has already suggested a ban on cars)?  How about pedestrian control; on my last trip down Main Street I encountered four different pedestrians crossing in the middle of the road? 

There used to be a TV public service announcement, “Cross at the green, not in between, because if you don’t, you may get…dead!”

Maybe the town Traffic and Transportation Commission could just adopt that simple message along with “Look both ways before you cross!”

It really does not take a rocket scientist to safely cross Main Street.