Hazards

Yesterday, three teenagers were waiting, with their bikes, to cross one of the busiest intersections in town. On average, AT LEAST one car runs the red light at this particular intersection (despite the flashing warning lights a full 5 seconds before the light even turns yellow)---it increases exponentially in the winter when roads are slippery. The teens began crossing the road and one of them was struck by a car running the red light. She died on impact.

As someone who spends lots of the time on the roads, stories like this scare the crap out of me. Even though I'm careful, I feel that being life-savingly-careful is impossible EVERY TIME. I be sure to make eye contact with people at intersections because I've narrowly missed being run down. Nearly every run, I have one person with whom I'm not able to make eye contact. One car where I would have been hit had I not waited for them...on the bike path, where I have the right of way.

What is it about our society that makes everyone so lax? Multi-tasking? Not enough driver training? Fairbanks is a pretty biker-friendly town in terms of the number of bike paths. But drivers are very hostile about having to share the roads (which don't have paths) or wait at a crosswalk for the pedestrian-biker-runner-whatever to cross the road. I've had people yell out their window for me to "learn to #*#*-ing walk already!" because I took, in their mind, too long to cross the 4 lanes of traffic.

Something tragic like this makes people drive a little bit slower, for a few days. If that. I know I'll be watching extra hard for people from now on.