safety and survival

[bornagainbiking]

It is a very sad couple of weeks with so many fatalities, especially the cyclists and pedestrians.
Basically, the primary tool for survival is your wits about you.
I think it is time to bring back Elmer the safety elephant into the school system.
I drive cross town on a regular basis and I see people so involved on their cell phones they just carry on their stroll crossing streets against the light, mid block or pausing in the middle of the street.
I seem to take the approach that the in the zone from one curb to the other I am venturing into a space where I may have the right of way but prefer to be able to swear at the vehicular offender that argue my point frfom a hospital bed or miss my point in the morgue.
For example I am stopped at Barton and Wellington planning on a right turn on the red. There are two people standing on the road examining the contents of a grey bag (king cans). There are about two feet off my bumper and my truck engine running and they are not even aware I am there, so I have the right of way but hey I can wait. When the light changed they didn't even look at traffic just walked out without a care.
I admit that there are bad drivers out there and they run red lights.
It really doesn't matter who is right and who is wrong someone could die.
Trick:
The other day several (10 or 11 yr olds) kids on bikes were deliberately riding out in front of cars and goading the drivers. The cars had to brake quickly on a couple occasions.
So i ask them to stop as they could get hurt and they tell me they don't care. So as a parent i remind them that their parants might.
Well I amused at the verbal abuse I endure. (Not in my day, too bad).
So I inform them i may have to call the cops Go ahead they say. They can't do nothing.
So i call their bluff and pull out my cellphone to maybe test the camera option (never used before) and before I can figure it out one kids announce he's taking our picture and "POOF" they were gone.
Some of the pedestrian accidents can be linked to Ipods, MP3 players and cell phones. Maybe it is time to teach people be safe be seen and lok both ways before you cross the street.