Friday, August 19, 2011

Tacoma Crosswalks

And, pursuant to my previous post, and likely related, if you step into a crosswalk in Tacoma; if you even THINK about stepping into a crosswalk in Tacoma, drivers will come to a complete stop and give you the right away (to be fair, I've seen this regularly in Seattle, as well).

The other day Danielle and I were waiting at a fairly major intersection and the light changed for us to cross. We had four lanes to cover, and there was a car stopped at the opposite side of the intersection waiting to turn right. Now, this car had HOURS and HOURS to go ahead and make this turn and come nowhere near us; the car behind this car could have made the turn, too (in fact the second car honked at the first). But no - we were in the crosswalk, we had the legal right of way, and Goddamnit this woman was going to give it to us, honking be damned (about the woman honking - I did specify in the previous post that I was speaking IN GENERAL; there are always exceptions, of course, even in friendly Tacoma). I like to contrast this bit of information with the fact of the number of close shaves I've had in countless San Francisco crosswalks (when I had the right of way) - cars barely missing me from behind, in front and, on one memorable occasion, no miss at all but a direct hit in the right leg which sent me bouncing off that particular woman's hood and onto the asphalt in the middle of the Gough and Washington intersection.

Though now, picturing the Gough and Washington intersection, and its proximity to the House of Prime Rib over on Van Ness, I'm getting all misty-eyed for some cream spinach and a second slice of the English Cut. Which is WAY off topic but sure beats thinking about getting hit by a car.

5 comments:

  1. And as an inveterate hick-from-the-sticks if not more a Walter Mitty, thank you GREATLY for pulling me back from the curb as I was about to get creamed in SF sans spinach.
    - Dustin Hoffman - hand slams on cabbies hood: "I'm walkin' here! I'm walkin' here!"

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  2. Did I do that? It's such a common occurrence I don't recall...

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  3. In my old Russian Hill neighborhood the drivers hated to stop at stop signs and hated to stop for pedestrians. Or maybe they just hated to stop for me because I didn't like Hootie and the Blowfish.

    That's that city's greatest flaw—it's a driver's town and it hates pedestrians.

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  4. Go ahead, Steve, say it - you think it's REALLY because you eat Chinese food on Christmas Day, don't you. You can be honest with infection by light.

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  5. Well, that's certainly why they accelerated when they saw me.

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Civility.