Vehicle vs. Pedestrian, Redux

Today, I'm writing about a simple change in behavior that will save hundreds, if not thousands, of human lives each year.  It requires no change in the law, and no government or private money to implement.

Here it is:  Show some humility when crossing a street at a non-electronically controlled intersection, look both ways, and yield to the traffic instead of thinking it should yield to you.

I actually touched on this idea in a blog post about six years ago.  Unfortunately, it hasn't caught on.  I'm constantly amazed at how many people enter nonchalantly into uncontrolled (or not stop-lighted) crosswalks, seemingly without regard to the thousand pound steel cannonballs converging on them.  It just happened to me the other day, when a fat man and his dog crossed in front of me without so much as a glance.

Maybe it's just me (it isn't), but when I'm driving, I'm not paying that much attention to a poorly marked pedestrian crossing.  It's just another set of faded white lines.  I'm a lot more worried about the other vehicular traffic around me.  Hell, I'm at least as worried about avoiding potholes, which is in essence me saying I care as much about pavement conditions as I do about crosswalk conditions.

Sure, I know that a pedestrian supposedly has the right of way in a crosswalk.  But in the end, that is a specious argument.  What does that matter?  If my vehicle accidentally hits a clueless pedestrian, I might get a ticket, perhaps worse, but they might be permanently disabled or dead.  Who made out worse?

Given the no-win nature of this outcome, why do pedestrians continue to think it's OK to cross a street without taking the minimal precaution of looking both ways?  I know people aren't raised that way, so what makes them change?

Perhaps this is too broad of a conclusion, but I think today's 'look at me, I'm important' reality show / social media-based culture plays at least a minor role.  You know, the culture in which I'm supposed to care more about what you're doing than I am about what I'm doing.

Please.  In the meeting between vehicle and pedestrian, vehicle always wins.  Do yourself a favor, show some humility, and look both ways before crossing any street.

Coffee And Doughnuts (And Terrorists)

I don't understand coffee and doughnuts.

Oh, I know what they are, I just don't understand the people who are willing to buy and consume them.  Let me explain.

I recently met a colleague at a local Starbucks (his choice, not mine, I don't drink coffee).  I got there around 10am, and during the next hour, I observed a steady stream of customers walk through the door.  There were men and women of all ages, some dressed for work, some clearly not working.  If I had to categorize them under one group, I suppose I'd say they were upper-middle class Caucasians.

These customers all had one other thing in common:  They were perfectly willing to pay several dollars for a cup of heavily sweetened, coffee bean-flavored hot water.  No doubt, this same thing was going on in thousands of other coffee shops in America, and perhaps every other country in the developed world.

This is why the terrorists hate us.  We live in a society where people are willing and able to spend hundreds / thousands of dollars every year on foo-foo coffee.  In the meantime, there is human suffering occurring in the U.S., and especially in the rest of the world.  Make no mistake, the terrorists don't intend to lessen the suffering, they simply want everyone else to suffer like them.  (Oh, and there's that religious thing, too.)

I don't blame Starbucks for any of this.  They are branding geniuses, able to get consumers to not only feel good about paying a lot for something unhealthy, but to also get those folks to waste the equivalent of many hours per year to stand in line for it!  As a capitalist, I say props to them.

I observed this same sort of hypnotic consumer behavior a few days ago at another brand name juggernaut, Krispy Kreme.  They were giving away free doughnuts on National Doughnut Day (yup, that's a thing), and the line reportedly when around the block for hours.  All of this for an unhealthy, warm, super-sugary blob of dough.  At least people weren't paying for it that day, which accounts for why I presume the crowd to have been made up of all economic classes and ethnicity.

So let's recap.  Starbucks and Krisy Kreme = admirable brand name juggernauts.  Their customers = free-spending hypnotized calorie consumers.  Coffee and doughnuts = super-expensive comfort food.  Terrorists = still and always a-holes.