The Old Coot travels outside the lines.
By Merlin Lessler
I have a problem with the DOT. I think they do a good job,
for the most part. State roads are well taken care of. Take a short ride over
the border and I’m sure you will agree. But, I think the proliferation of pedestrian
cross walk signals are a waste of time and money. I can see it, at busy, tricky
intersections, but a lot of locations where they’ve been adding the signals, at
$50,000 a pop, and more, are unnecessary, and a little insulting as well. How
stupid do they think we are that we need help crossing streets where all you
need to do is look both ways? A skill that five-year-old kids master before
starting kindergarten. I suspect it may not be the DOT’s choice; it’s probably
some federal safety standard that must be met if they want to get their fair
share of federal funds. Like a lot of Washington’s programs, it’s blackmail of
the highest order.
So no, I don’t have an issue with the” transportation”
component of their function. My issue starts just off the edge of the travel
lane, the shoulder of the road, where pedestrians, bicycle riders,
skateboarders and the like, wend their way. Oh sure, there’s a bike lane here
and there, a narrow space between a painted white line right next to the lane
where 4,000-pound SUV’s fly by as though racing in the Daytona 500. I’d like to
see a new state department established, the DOPT, Department of Pedestrian Transportation
(meant to include pedestrians, bicycles, skateboarders, and every other form of
non-motor vehicle transportation). The DOPT would have exclusive authority over
the travel zone alongside the road.
The first mission of the DOPT would be to clean up this travel
space, to sweep off the sand and salt after a cruel winter, the debris that has
fallen off commercial transporter’s vehicles and the limbs and weeds that
encroach over the pathway. Not everyone in the country moves around in a motor
vehicle, a lot of people can’t afford it and must travel on foot or under human
power of some sort, to get to work and other places. Another whole bunch, do it
for the pleasure and health benefits of powering themselves from one point to
another. A clear path would be a good start.
Then, the safety issues could be addressed, creating truly
safe places to walk and bike, protected from the distracted drivers who are running
us down at greater numbers every year. The money wasted on those unnecessary
cross walk signals would go a long way toward solving the problem. A state department with a single focus on
this component of transportation, would be a worthy and much appreciated
venture. We’re a small portion of the population, but our numbers are growing
as the benefits to good health (physical and mental) and a smaller carbon
footprint are adopted by more and more joggers, walkers, peddlers &
skateboarders. We spend millions on rail-trail projects, that, while important,
don’t solve the problem for the great masses that don’t have access to them and
do their thing along the roads dominated by motor vehicles. I’m spoiled; I grew
up in a world where it was safe to get around under human power, on sidewalks
along the roadway. We moved along on foot, on bicycles, pogo sticks, stilts and
roller skates and we were safe. It would be nice to progress back to what once
was.
Complaints? Comments? Send to mlessler7@gmail.com
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