Yeah, well, I’m not good at lessons. Quick question – who knows what this is?
Correct, friends – it’s a crosswalk. You may find them adjacent to intersections, where you can safely cross from one side of the street to the other, pursuant to the traffic signal that is guiding the traffic. You may have seen them close to schools in your area, where a crossing guard holds up a small “STOP” sign in order for a pack of children to cross safely. Lastly, they occur across streets where people are crossing on a regular basis. There’s normally no traffic signal or blinking light – just the large, thick white painted lines that intersect the street.
So, here’s what’s stuck in my craw. The state in which I live, Tennessee, has no concept of the difference between a law and a suggestion. This state is a blend for me of Mayberry and the Wild West. They are sweet, polite and nice to your face but behind closed doors and car doors, there’s little regard for human or animal rights to be found. They spit, drink moonshine, take the law into their own hands, and worship ungodly things like the SEC. It’s pandemonium.
In my drive from home to work, I come upon a total of 5 cross walks that fall into the third category listed above…thick white lines that signify it’s safe for pedestrians to cross, but no traffic signals or cross guards to blow a whistle. The last crosswalk that I encounter is the one that links my work parking lot to my office. We park across the street, in a metal cage mind you (but we’ll get to that fun topic at another point). I’ve now worked at my job for 9 months and could count on both my hands the number of times that someone has yielded for me to cross the 5 lane road. I feel like I’m playing an eternal game of Frogger some mornings.
I would guess that I personally stop at one of these cross walks 3 out of 5 days a week to let pedestrians cross. Why, you might ask? BECAUSE IT’S THE FLIPPING LAW, THAT’S WHY!!!! Now, I’m far from perfect when it comes to obeying all traffic laws – particularly the ones that relate to my speedometer. But I’m most cautious of pedestrians because I would never want to be that girl who hit someone and watched them flip over the hood, like in the movies. I know, a Prius is so appropriate when it comes to movie stunt work in downtown Chattanooga.
This is how the law reads in the State of Tennessee:
PEDESTRIAN’S RIGHT-OF-WAY IN CROSSWALKS LAW 55-8-134
(a) When traffic-control signals are not in place or not in operation, the driver of a vehicle shall yield the right-of-way, slowing down or stopping if need be to so yield, to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within a crosswalk when the pedestrian is upon the half of the roadway upon which the vehicle is traveling, or when the pedestrian is approaching so closely from the opposite half of the roadway as to be in danger.
(b) No pedestrian shall suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety and walk or run into the path of a vehicle which is so close that it is impossible for the driver to yield.
(c) Subsection (a) does not apply under the conditions stated in § 55-8-135(b).
(d) Whenever any vehicle is stopped at a marked crosswalk or at any unmarked crosswalk at an intersection to permit a pedestrian to cross the roadway, the driver of any other vehicle approaching from the rear shall not overtake and pass such stopped vehicle.
[Acts 1955, ch. 329, § 33; T.C.A., § 59-834.]
Pretty self-explanatory, I think. I’ve thought of placing a letter to the editor in the local paper in order to remind people of the law. But that would mean that Wyatt Earp would have to stop reading the SEC sport section in order to educate himself on something that he should have been taught in driver’s education. Or, I could give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he just moved here from another state where reading and driver’s ed is less prevalent because of the SEC sports coma. You know – Alabama.
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