On July 9 of this year, “CBS Sunday Morning” aired a segment about pedestrian deaths by automobile. I had already started my rant about the careless and dangerous attitude shown toward the 4-way stop signs on the corner outside my house (“The Hot Corner,” The Weekly View, July 19th, 2023.) The television report included an interview with City-County Councilor John Barth, who noted that 2022 saw a record 40 pedestrian deaths and made some reasonable recommendations to reduce those numbers.
On my corner of the world, my youngest granddaughter carefully watches the passage of cars, and reports to me: “Clop! That white truck DIDN’T EVEN STOP!” We were recently watching the approach of a car, and when it completed its maneuver, 5-year-old Myah turned to me and said, “That was a pause.” Her mother and I have inculcated her with the idea of respect for the street cautions. When she was a little younger, trailing from my hand as we walked on South Arlington, she would scream at passing cars: “SLOW DOWN!” (I discouraged that, but she still grumbled.) Recently, as my friend walked to a parking lot with her 9-year-old grandson, the boy told an encroaching car, “I’m walking here!” (The child has never seen Midnight Cowboy and knows nothing of Dustin Hoffman’s now-famous ad lib.)
In mid-July, the Indianapolis Department of Public Works posted on a neighborhood site a continuing program of “tactical urbanism,” and an installation of “traffic-calming barriers” by the Community Heights Neighborhood Organization (CHNO). At the intersection of E. 10th Street and N. Ritter, colorful barriers have been placed to separate the bike lanes and slow down speeders in the turn lane. The “tactical urbanism” project was undertaken with the support and approval of the city. And judging from the comments on a neighborhood page that I follow, there are a lot of people who care little for the safety of others and would prefer to speed in the turn lane, pass in the bike lane and run the red lights. The long-suffering administrator of the page has resorted to a meme showing the singer Prince with the caption “Dig If You Will, The Picture,” and advised her constituents to “Visualize and Transcend.” The installation has been sanctioned by the city, people. A study was done, and that corner was selected to determine what measures need to be taken to reduce speeding on the street, a corner where I have often observed the routine running of red lights.
I did an informal survey of my hot corner, checking visibility and sightlines; on the North/South corner, when travelling South, there is a sightline problem. A tree grows in Irvington (not Brooklyn) and blocks a clear view of Eastbound oncoming traffic. It is on this corner that the “pause and slide” maneuver is most utilized. I sat on my porch from noon to 1 p.m. on July 19 and counted cars. Eighteen cars passed, of which four came to a full and complete stop. Fourteen others either paused or did the pause-and-slide. There are no sidewalks in my community and when schoolkids are travelling those streets, I am fearful. Unlike what I have taught the 5-year-old, they do not stop at the red-and-white octagon. I do not subject them to the old man’s reproachful gaze, but drivers probably wonder why that man is standing on his lawn, shaking his head in disgust. Stopping at a stop sign is neither hard work nor an unreasonable conscription of anyone’s time. It is the law, an ordinance and a safe practice designed to protect lives.
As Myah learned to say to me: “Stop, please.”
cjon3acd@att.net