My Journey With Health And Fitness – Annual Rant About Being A Pedestrian

Yesterday at the gym it was one of our newer trainers. I really like her as she has some exercises that are unique as well as the fact that she brings her dog. Yesterday was a pretty brutal workout and she kept reminding people to listen to your body, it can be uncomfortable but shouldn’t be painful. I walked by her and told her my body is saying that I am too old for this shit. Truly, my legs are so tired from my crazy walks but hey, lets walk 20km/day on top of a 1 hour fitness class. Thankfully after my final walk today I am going to soak in the hot tub for a while.

Because I am back to doing a lot of walking I once again have to rant about being a pedestrian. Tuesday I walked to the gym and back. It is 5km each way and when I leave the house at 4:15am it is still dark out. When I leave the gym at around 6:30am the sun is up but it is not quite full on daylight. So, I wear a high visibility reflective vest every day so that there is no excuse for not seeing me.

Anyways, Tuesday I was walking home and got to a crosswalk where you push the button and lights flash on eith side of the street. As I walked up to the button a car sped up to beat the flashing lights. I hit the button and noted 2 cars far enough away to easily stop before the cross walk. 1 of them did, the other instead of stopping blew through the crosswalk despite me starting to cross. I yelled out and the kind driver gave me the finger.

People, this is so wrong. If you cannot pay attention and obey the traffic laws, don’t drive. I did everything correct on my part and yet this jerk still decided his 2,000lb vehicle was more important. The frustrating part is this was not a young person driving so that excuse (not that it really is one) isn’t available.

Let’s go over this again. I as a pedestrian must do everything I can to be visible. I need to wait to cross when it is safe to do so. I must obey pedestrian crossing signals such as only crossing when the walk signal is indicated, not start crossing when the hand starts flashing. Driver’s must check before entering crosswalks to ensure there are no pedestrians trying to cross. Oh, and to make it simple, pedestrians in this province have the right of way and drivers must stop for them even when they do stupid things like jaywalk or cross against the light (things I don’t do normally but admit I will jaywalk if there is a raccoon or skunk involved). This is not rocket science people.

Ok, end of this year’s rant. I want to finish by saying I never assume I am seen. I do my best to ensure I have reflective clothing when it is not full daylight. I try to cross at controlled crosswalks as much as possible. I’m doing my part, I suggest drivers do theirs.