walking – Page 3 – Person versus Automobile

Hit in a Crosswalk (Part 2)

Mission: To promote driving less so all may live more.

The previous post was about Laura’s experience of getting hit by a car while in a flashing-light crosswalk (2007). The crosswalk where the accident occurred was replaced by a high-intensity activated crosswalk (HAWK, which provides a flashing yellow light followed by a solid yellow light followed by a red light). After installing the HAWK, Boulder went a step further, replacing it with a pedestrian underpass (the best and costliest solution).

Pedestrian underpass on Baseline Road, east of Broadway, Boulder, CO

Hit in a Crosswalk (guest post, Laura)

Mission: To promote driving less so all may live more.

[Laura, one of my daughters, was hit by an SUV at night in a flashing-light crosswalk in Boulder, CO in 2007. The incident could have been much worse (if she had walked just a bit slower). To those of us who were nearby when it happened, it was quite upsetting. To her, it was more than that. In this post we now read her account, the account of the person vs. automobile. — Louis]

Musings of Family, Prayer, and Trauma

After something like that it’s only natural to reflect, retrace, and wonder why it all ended up okay. Indeed, more often than not things seem to end up okay. That’s a miracle in of itself.

It happened on a warm summer evening. I remember leaving Brewing Market with two of my sisters, Mindy and Amy, and my dad (who got in his car to drive home). My sisters were ahead of me. We were walking across Baseline Road to the University of Colorado for something, which, for the life of me, I can’t remember.
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Why We Run in the Street (a picture story)

Mission: To promote driving less so all may live more.

This post is a public service announcement. With a web log named “Person versus Automobile,” I owe drivers an explanation of why I still risk running in the street. In this respect, there is no antagonism, only competing risks.

There’s a slight analogy here: as far as I know, my father avoided crosswalks because they provided false security. Whenever I feel I may trip on the sidewalk (if it exists), I shift to the street, assuming it’s empty.

Ok, on with the picture story.

Sometimes the sidewalk ends suddenly...happens a lot where I live. — Sometimes the sidewalk ends suddenly…happens a lot where I live.

Roads Were Not Built for Cars (Part 4)

Mission: To promote driving less so all may live more.

This follows the third post that draws upon the book Roads Were Not Built for Cars: How Cyclists Were the First to Push for Good Roads & Became the Pioneers of Motoring, by Carlton Reid, 2015.^[1] This is the final post dedicated to that worthy book.

To re-cap the main drift of the book and my purpose for drawing upon it: roads were created for animals and pedestrians (think of Roman soldiers), and (skipping ahead a few thousand years), after being ignored as a result of the railroad, were resuscitated by cyclists (bicyclists and tricyclists).
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Roads Were Not Built for Cars (Part 3)

Mission: To promote driving less so all may live more.

This follows the second post that draws upon the book Roads Were Not Built for Cars: How Cyclists Were the First to Push for Good Roads & Became the Pioneers of Motoring, by Carlton Reid, 2015.^[1]

When automobiles were introduced in Britain and America, they were by historical fact newcomers and outsiders, unwelcome on many or most roads. They lacked legislative backing and social appreciation. But within about a half of century, they had taken over the roads and the minds of many.
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