by "TheRealBicycleBuck" (therealbicyclebuck)
Published 06/28/2017 at 09:43
by "TheRealBicycleBuck" (therealbicyclebuck)
Published 06/28/2017 at 09:43
No Tags
STARS: 1
My son has classes Tuesday and Thursday evenings all summer long. Since I have nothing better to do, I end up wandering around the north side of town while I wait. I’ve been all over the place, partly because we are considering moving into town to give us better access to my office and our kids’ schools. I’ve driven everywhere, from the “bad” neighborhoods to the recently gentrified areas. It’s been enlightening.
One of the things I noticed was the number of people walking around on the street. I don’t mean on the sidewalk next to the street, I mean in the street, or on the medians. When they cross, it’s never at a crosswalk or at an intersection, even if the nearest intersection is just a few feet away. I watched some guy stop his car on a four-lane divided street to talk to two girls who were walking in the median.I thought several times, “that bonehead is going to get hit.”
Sure enough, it happened.
When I drove by this intersection last night, it looked like half of the Baton Rouge police force was there. I thought there must have been another shooting. Nope, someone was hit while crossing the street .
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
Why did this happen? I can see three problems. First, this is close to the intersection of two major roads. Florida Boulevard, the road the man was crossing, is also U.S. Highway 190. For those unfamiliar with our naming conventions, U.S. Highways were the original interstate transportation system. They were replaced by our modern Interstates which are designed for higher speeds and have limited access. U.S. Highways are usually multi-lane collector streets, but don’t have limited access. In rural areas, they are often two-lane high-speed roads. Florida Blvd., where this happened , is a four-lane highway with adjacent sidewalks.. The speed limit where this happened is 35 mph. Local news erroneously reported the limit being higher.
The pedestrian was struck between Kernan, a two-lane residential street, and Acadian Thruway, a four-lane arterial with higher speed limits than Florida. This leads to the second problem - jaywalking is rampant around here. I’ve seen people too lazy to walk to the intersection, instead choosing to weave through a line of stopped cars three cars back from the intersection. That’s roughly 30 feet of walking saved. The marker in the photo above is about where the person was hit. He was crossing the street from the south side of Florida Blvd. (north is up in the image), trying to get to Exxon. It’s clear that the pedestrian was crossing in the middle of the block even though a crosswalk was just 100 feet away.
The third problem, the car was going way too fast. The news reported that it was a police officer in an unmarked car, but it isn’t clear why he was speeding because he wasn’t responding to a call. I’m sure it’s relevant that it was an officer because he should have known better. But I’ve been driving around this area a couple nights a week for several weeks and I can say that speeders are everywhere on this side of town. Let’s be clear here. I drive a WRX, usually like I stole it. Even I think people are driving too fast.
There are also plenty of people driving other things on these streets. In the hour before the accident, I spotted two different guys on dirt bikes on these four-lane roads. One of them was trying to do wheelies in the middle of Acadian Thruway. When I drove through one of the local parks, a bunch of girls were practicing their cheerleading routine in the middle of the road. Ladies, there’s a nice grassy area just on the other side of that curb. If you moved over there, you wouldn’t have to stop your routine to let me through.
On a previous evening I spotted a kid riding a horse in the street . It was a residential street, but it was only a block from the main thoroughfare. I’ve ridden horses. I know that sometimes they decide to bolt and when they do, it’s hard to get them to stop (that’s another story for another day). It’s not a big leap to imagine a skittish horse running into traffic. Years ago I told my daughter we couldn’t have a horse because we don’t live on a farm. Apparently, a residential back yard is sufficient. Sorry, sweetheart. You still can’t have a horse.
Before this gets blow up as the latest police killing of a black man, I just want Oppo to know that there’s a whole bunch of crazy stuff happening in the streets on the north side of Baton Rouge. I’m not surprised at all that someone was hit by a car, whether it was an officer or not.
"OPPOsaurus WRX" (opposaurus)
06/28/2017 at 09:55, STARS: 4
Is Baton Rouge part of Russia?
"TheRealBicycleBuck" (therealbicyclebuck)
06/28/2017 at 10:00, STARS: 0
Either that or NYC.
I feel it won’t be long before this happens here:
http://nypost.com/2016/09/01/these-annoying-dirt-bikers-shut-down-times-square/
Well, I guess we need to get our own Times Square first.
"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
06/28/2017 at 10:03, STARS: 1
Nah, if it were it would be spelled aTOH PY.
"Jason Spears" (shadestalker)
06/28/2017 at 10:05, STARS: 0
Las Vegas (or the hotels, I’m not sure which) has begun addressing the problem by seperating sidewalk areas from Las Vegas Boulevard with landscaping and / or effective but not-too-ugly fencing. I don’t know what the success rate is, but I applaud the effort.
"jimz" (jimz)
06/28/2017 at 10:05, STARS: 0
this is a problem in and around Detroit. despite most of the older neighborhoods having perfectly good sidewalks, people (mostly asshole teenagers) will walk down the middle of the street and balk at getting out of the way of cars.
and the geniuses developing new subdivisions in the outer suburbs are building them without sidewalks. Morons.
"TheRealBicycleBuck" (therealbicyclebuck)
06/28/2017 at 10:06, STARS: 0
I feel like you deserve a red star, comrade.
"LongbowMkII" (longbowmkii)
06/28/2017 at 10:06, STARS: 0
I’m glad that there arent many pedestrians here in my town. Police/bikes/brotrucks use main street as a drag strip it seems
"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
06/28/2017 at 10:07, STARS: 0
.
"pip bip - choose Corrour" (hhgttg69)
06/28/2017 at 10:09, STARS: 0
the cop will be in deep shit
but overall you have to feel sorry for the pedestrian
"TheRealBicycleBuck" (therealbicyclebuck)
06/28/2017 at 10:09, STARS: 0
In my neighborhood, a residential area where we expect to see pedestrians and kids in the street, some of my neighbors seem to think it’s a drag strip too.
"TheRealBicycleBuck" (therealbicyclebuck)
06/28/2017 at 10:18, STARS: 0
They are just now building neighborhoods without sidewalks? That’s been the standard design in the south for years.
"TheRealBicycleBuck" (therealbicyclebuck)
06/28/2017 at 10:21, STARS: 0
I have less sympathy for the pedestrian simply because he should have known better than to be in the middle of a busy street. But he shouldn’t have had to pay for that mistake with his life. That makes me sad.
The cop will be in deep and deservedly so.
"Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo" (thetomselleck)
06/28/2017 at 10:24, STARS: 0
My money is on a stern finger-wag
"facw" (facw)
06/28/2017 at 10:27, STARS: 1
I’m all for jay walking if there’s actually room to safely do it (and the jaywalker hustlers). However, I see people crossing on these red lines nearly every day:
I don’t get anyone who would cross 10 lanes of traffic with fairly constant flow rather than walk around to extremely close crosswalk. I know Texans like their Whataburger, but it’s really pretty absurd. Especially since they normally aren’t even jogging, but just wandering across at whatever pace.
"TheRealBicycleBuck" (therealbicyclebuck)
06/28/2017 at 10:31, STARS: 1
I see a new ad campaign - “What would you do for a Whataburger?”
I admit it, I love Whataburger.
"FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com" (alphaass)
06/28/2017 at 10:41, STARS: 2
Dude I would totally jaywalk 10 lanes for Whataburger. Heck, about 8 years ago I lived in an apartment complex across a 6 lane 50 MPH from a Whataburger in SA and I regularly jogged across it. That being said, I am well aware I was being an asshole.
"TheRealBicycleBuck" (therealbicyclebuck)
06/28/2017 at 11:14, STARS: 2
Key word being “jogged.” Most of the people I’ve seen here crossing the street would be more accurately described as sauntering, swaggering, or strutting. Swaying, stumbling, weaving, or wobbling would also be appropriate, depending on the time and location.
"BigBlock440" (440-4bbl)
06/28/2017 at 11:29, STARS: 0
“On a previous evening I spotted a kid riding a horse in the street . It was a residential street”
Would it be as odd if it were a bicycle? Same deal, as long as it’s not limited access, they’re legal to “drive” there, usually. Residential sounds like low enough speed.
Also, I don’t know WTF is up with the walking in the street thing. The city I used to live in I’d see it all the time, they were walking parallel to the freaking sidewalk, just a few feet away.
"BigBlock440" (440-4bbl)
06/28/2017 at 11:31, STARS: 0
If the sidewalks aren’t being used anyway, why not save some money?
"TheRealBicycleBuck" (therealbicyclebuck)
06/28/2017 at 12:12, STARS: 0
“Would it be as odd if it were a bicycle?”
Ummmm, no. A kid on a bike wouldn’t be unexpected. A kid on a horse in the middle of a residential area in the middle of a city is unexpected, whether it’s legal or not. It’s also NOT the same thing. I grew up in the country and riding horses was something we did. Horses are definitely not the same as riding a bicycle.
In Louisiana, it’s illegal to ride a horse on a state highway or the right-of-way (
http://www.legis.la.gov/legis/Law.aspx?p=y&d=86121
).
In Baton Rouge, it’s not illegal to ride a horse on the road except where specifically restricted and signs are posted, but it is illegal to drive livestock down a road (think cattle drive). It’s also illegal to graze your animals on any city property or to keep any livestock on your own property if it’s less than one acre and less than 100 feet from neighboring structures ( https://library.municode.com/la/baton_rouge,_east_baton_rouge_parish/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=TIT14AN_CH2KEDOAN_PTIILIRAKERE )
"TheRealBicycleBuck" (therealbicyclebuck)
06/28/2017 at 12:15, STARS: 0
Classic chicken-and-egg problem. It’s hard to not use something if it isn’t there to be used.
Even though it’s ridiculously hot down here, it’s not uncommon for our sidewalks to be in use. Plus the streets, the medians, the right-of-way....
"BigBlock440" (440-4bbl)
06/28/2017 at 12:32, STARS: 0
I was mostly joking, assuming there are places to walk to in these new places JimZ’s referring to.
"TheRealBicycleBuck" (therealbicyclebuck)
06/28/2017 at 13:12, STARS: 0
It’s often hard to tell. That’s why they invented emoji.
Of course, everyone has places to walk to in a neighborhood. You just have to get to know a few of your neighbors. It’s a foreign concept these days.