So the other night, as my friends and I journeyed back to my Boston apartment, I came to a crosswalk (a few actually). As I walked up to it my first response was to stop and look both ways, which I did. My second response was to check to make sure the crosswalk signal said go -- or more recognizably, "Little White Walking Man." After a few moments I thought about this and it very much shocked me.
I realized the idea of a machine letting you know when it is safe to cross the street is incredibly ridiculous.
Do we not have eyes? Are we humans so stupid that we can not gage the danger of an oncoming car? Have we become so lazy that we depend on a machine to give us information we could easily process on our own?
These were all interesting questions, but what interested me even more was the fact that even though the crosswalk said do not go, we still went. As most of you know this is not an uncommon activity for crosswalk users. The unofficial rule in most places is that when there are no cars, you cross. Of course, town officials will probably tell you that crosswalk signals are there for pubic safety, but if people do not adhere to them in the first place then how are they protecting us?
They are not, and they are wasting a lot of tax dollars.
Think about it.
Cheers!
The College Kids
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Thought of The Day: Crosswalks
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
However, there is a flip side to it... for the blind folks out there, the crosswalk signals that chirp when you can cross are extremely beneficial. Also, although I don't know how true this may be, deaf people can see the cars but may have less spatial reasoning ability to determine when is a safe enough distance to attempt to cross. Just a thought.
Post a Comment