When I touched a hot iron with my finger at the age of five, my mom didn’t have much (any?) sympathy.
“I told you once before my iron might be hot so you should never touch it, but you didn’t listen,” she said as I wiped away the tears.
I never touched the hot iron again.
It’s fine advice for a kid, but what do you do when it’s an adult who wants to touch the proverbial iron by doing something risky?
Do you wait until they get hurt and hope they live to learn a lesson? Or do you take pre-emptive action to save people from their own silly selves?
That’s what I’m struggling with after speaking with a Burnaby transit driver about a stretch of Hastings Street at Duthie Avenue at the base of Burnaby Mountain.
This bus driver, who didn’t want his name used, is fed up with seeing people willingly risk their lives illegally crossing Hastings as they race to catch a bus.
“I drive a transit bus and luckily I haven’t seen a pedestrian get hit or killed, but spoke to a witness on the last person who was hit.”
There are three bus stops at Duthie and Hastings. I know them well because I drive past them on a daily basis. During busy times, pedestrians are racing back and forth across Hastings to get to one of the three stops – and often not at the intersection light.
They dart across one of the medians and in between vehicles. Drivers are admittedly speeding down the hill – slow it down, people – and there’s a curve right before one of the bus stops that creates a last-second view of somebody who is walking in the middle of the road. Compounding the situation at the curve is a side street that feeds onto Hastings.
It’s scary watching this during the day and downright terrifying when it happens in the dark. I see it pretty much every day.
The bus driver who contacted me said the Hastings medians east and west of the Duthie intersection should have some sort of fencing erected to prevent people from jaywalking.
You see these fences at different spots around Metro Vancouver. They are often decorative and do a good job of keeping reckless people safe.
Yes, I know, it’s taxpayers’ money being spent to prevent pedestrians from illegally jaywalking. People don’t like spending tax dollars to save people from themselves.
But I’d rather spend a few dollars in a high-risk area than have somebody get killed.
Sure, people should know better but they don’t so it’s time to step in and do something about it.
You can follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
