ON ORCHARD Road, near Paragon Shopping Centre, a woman hurries across the road with a stroller while cars speed by.
Farther down the road, near Centrepoint, a man darts across the busy road to catch a bus.
I very honestly don't see the sense in waiting for the green man when there isn't a car in sight. This is silly; jay walking in dangerous places like Orchard are bad, sure, but in backwater HDB farms, or small roads, where no provisions have been made, and where cars are rare, I don't see the need to be overly by-the-book. You have to be realistic about these things. Neurotic rule-following is what it is. This article talks about jaywalking like it's a moral sin of some kind. Honestly.
Rushing across small roads in HDB estates or near farms, when the 'green man' sign is not lit, can be a dangerous practice. Just as pedestrians assume it is safe to cross when there appears to be no car in sight, drivers also assume it is safe to speed or drive round a bend without keeping a proper lookout when there appears to be no pedestrian in sight. Complacency is a recipe for disaster.
Adults with kids are showing their kids the example of raod safety? Good for them, then.
Nobody thinks abt it until one day they get knocked down.
Then what about the poor driver who would be traumatsied by reckless jay walkers after knocking someone? On top of that, the driver has to bear the greater brunt of the law, all becuase people find it silly to be standing waiting for green man or simply too lazy to walk to a crossing point?
The Police should come by to Paya Lebar Road at morning peak hour. There's so many jay walkers to catch. Lots of fine money to make too! Some are so inpatient that even when traffic is halted momentarily due to congestions, they start crossing and then get caught with the moving traffic later. Then there are those who run across and expect the people on the other side to make way for them to run into safety of the waiting area. Hey! If you want to take risks to run across the road, be prepared that there's no room for you to hop into at the other end. Want the cake & eat it too. So presumptious that everyone owes you this just because you ran across the road and there's a car coming right on the lane you are standing in? One day, they may not be so lucky.
Frankly, if a jay walker gets knocked down, don't expect symptahy from me, afterall, based on the comments of the jay walkers, they said they need to be smart to do it (and sicne they are doing it = they are smart), they cross it a times when there's no car (which I can understand too), they cross becuase it's silly to be waiting, so with all those supporting comments, I wish them well.
if jaywalkers are to be penalized, then i want the same by the book treatment for cars that do not signal when turning. (very common when they turn into carparks from main road)
Maybe we can suggest all cars are fitted with video cameras so that when accidents happen, the traffic police can view the recordings during investigation. We can't stop those people from courting death but those people should not be so selfish as to get others unrelated to them into trouble.
September 22, 2008 Monday, 04:11 AM
