Mean streets

Cars and pedestrians make an uneasy mix, a point I've been thinking about a lot since two of my friends have been hit in crosswalks in the last 13 months. This photo, taken by my partner John Denniston in the 1970s in downtown Vancouver, seems to illustrate a certain nonchalance by pedestrians that might be fatal today. 

When the walk sign gives the go-ahead and the cars are all stopped, drivers at some Vancouver intersections may occasionally be startled by the gimlet eye of a certain grey-haired pedestrian before she sets foot out onto the street. That suspicious old party would be me. I’ve always been a cautious walker, but that caution has been elevated to near paranoia by the fact that two close friends have been clobbered at pedestrian crosswalks within the last 13 months. Both had the right of way, but that didn’t prevent left-turning drivers plowing into them, one in broad daylight, one during a nasty grey twilight in pouring rain.

My friend Linda was hit in the early afternoon of Dec. 9, 2018 at a four-way stop in the Fairview Slopes area. A car that had stopped and was waiting to make a left turn suddenly accelerated while she and another pedestrian were in the crosswalk. The other pedestrian escaped, but the car sent Linda flying up into the air, shattering a hip, cracking many ribs, fracturing a shoulder, cutting her face and chipping a tooth. After surgery and a year of intensive rehabilitation, she’s back to walking the mean streets again – but very, very carefully.

My friend Andre, who was hit in the late afternoon of Jan. 31, 2020, gives at least some credit to Linda’s experience for helping him escape injury altogether. In his case, a left-turning driver ignored the walk signal and plowed into him as he crossed Broadway at Quebec Street. The collision knocked him out of his “admittedly loose-fitting” shoes, but he saw the car at the last second and managed to roll off the hood before sprawling onto the street. Ever since Linda’s accident, he has been “doubly aware and alert when crossing streets,” he wrote her later, “and I’m sure that alertness is what gave me the chance to react and to roll off the hood. Your misfortune helped to avert mine, and for that I am very grateful.”

Why two friends would be hit under similar circumstances within such a short time frame is a puzzle. Are Vancouver drivers getting worse? Is congestion making people more impatient? Is the design of modern cars, with those wide, view-obscuring side pillars, making it harder to see pedestrians? I would need studies and statistics to know whether two such accidents are indicative of anything more than coincidence and bad luck. But they explain why at least one ultra-suspicious pedestrian waiting to cross the city’s intersections these days is giving all drivers in all directions a long, hard stare.