Aren't we all pedestrians?

Submitted by rbroussard on Thu, 04/21/2011 - 1:36pm

Whether you predominantly travel to-and-fro by bicycle, car or foot, we are all pedestrians during the day. Your trip from your train, bike or car to your building may be short, but distance doesn't matter. We are all pedestrians.

On Monday evening, in a light sprinkle of rain, I stood out about three feet or more in the crosswalk waiting to cross the street at Belmont and Hoyne. As usual at that intersection, not one car stopped for me—despite me inching toward the center-line...and despite the law that requires motorists to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks.

If that were you waiting in the rain, wouldn't you hope someone would stop for the 10-seconds it takes you to cross the street?

The law in Illinois says that you must stop (no longer yield) for pedestrians in crosswalks. What's the hold-up? We are all pedestrians.

Please respect each other.

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New Law needs enforcement

Submitted by Matthew (not verified) on Sat, 04/23/2011 - 10:25am.

Active Trans really needs to push for enforcement in Chicago on this. This law makes things MORE dangerous if we are not actively enforcing since pedestrians could reasonably expect that cars would stop. If we are going to genuinely encourage a pedestrian culture, we have to get the police on our side on this one.

Pick a crosswalk on 55th street on the South Side for a sting and the Chicago police will earn more than enough per hour to justify the time.

Despite the new law,

Submitted by Kevin Monahan (not verified) on Fri, 04/22/2011 - 10:10am.

Despite the new law, Chicago's unfriendly car-culture is sure to be slow to change behavior and respect towards pedestrians. I really don't understand when and why this city developed its unfriendly attitude towards pedestrians, but it is unique among the Midwest. While biking and walking in Minneapolis last weekend, I was pleasantly surprised at how many motorists yielded to me while standing near a crosswalk or biking in a lane.

Though I accept that changing Chicago's car-culture will take time (perhaps a generation or two?), I'm not willing to forgo my rights as a pedestrian in my own city. Therefore, I have been taking on some very active engagements in the public way to try, in my little own way, to change the "Chicago way". Two examples of this:
1) While on a bike, if I am on a two-lane street and I see pedestrians near a crosswalk and obviously waiting to cross, I will take the lane and then signal that I am stopping. I will also elegantly pursuade the pedestrian to take their right-of-way, and I'll even smile and remind them that they have my respect. I see this as therapy for the down-trodden, beaten pedestrian souls of Chicago. They believe they are third-class citizens in their own city, and that needs to change. My taking the lane and causing traffic to stop before the crosswalk will, sometimes, cause me flak by the motorists behind me, but sometimes they will see the pedestrian and calm down. To those that simply won't chill out, I ignore them and give them a spiritual pass to learn their lesson another day.

2) While on foot at a crosswalk, I have become very assertive in making eye contact with motorists and letting them know -- by some form of my body language -- that I am going to cross in front of their path. I do this only when I am sure that the motorist has plenty of time to slow or stop -- which is *often* the case, as I've learned from being a pedestrian in other cities such as Seattle or Minneapolis. The motorist in Chicago may not like to slow or stop for pedestrians, but they usually do have the option to do so with little effort on their part.