Ink Pen by Phil Dunlap for May 27, 2015

Never looked at it as waving you across. And more and more I’m missing the old days of crossing lights. Seems like their more and more trying to penalize you for being a pedestrian as their speeding up the timing on the crossing lights.

Used to walk down to the local library for years having to cross a two lane road as I went. And for the longest time I knew that that crossing light would start changing from walk to don’t walk when I’d be about three feet from the other side of the road. Then it started speeding up to eventually it got to the point where I’d be three feet from that double yellow before it started changing. And it’s not just that light, I’ve seen other area crosswalks where the lights no longer give you enough time to cross even a single lane road. You can see the light changing when someone is just three feet from the curb they started at.

Nor is it just this area. I was out in California back in August and September and I saw crosswalks that were even worse than here, folks would start crossing as soon as the light said to cross only for it to immediately change to don’t walk before they could even step off the curb. Seeing these crossing lights getting so fast I after to wonder if the penalty is your life or a chance for municipalities to ticket you for jaywalking. Around here I wouldn’t doubt that jaywalking bit, the local city wants to rob folks blind if they could get away with it. And there are enough idiots, including at least one of my relatives, who would let them do so.

In Pittsburgh, drivers are allowed to drive through on a crossing light as long as they’re careful not to hit anyone.