Yesterday, Jeff Larson and I were in his office and something on the TV caught our eye. We were watching our Expressway camera at Andrew Square from atop the Fortress Building. I know what you’re thinking – most people watch broadcast shows on TV. Jeff and I stare at traffic cameras. Actually, yesterday’s view from the Fortress camera proved as dramatic as some reality shows.
We saw a man walk across the northbound ramp to Southhampton Street, heading toward the Expressway. Apparently, this person’s target was the South Bay Mall area, which meant crossing eight lanes of traffic moving at highway speeds. This happens now and again, and I have no idea why. What’s even more vexing is that the Southhampton Street overpass is mere steps away and a safer, more logical choice than crossing the Expressway on foot.
For the next several minutes, we watched as he stood against the guardrail in the breakdown lane and seemingly waited for the right time to dart into highway traffic. There is no right time to dart into traffic, by the way. He stepped out, saw traffic coming too fast, ran back to the breakdown lane, and started the cycle over again. Every venture into the travel lane meant that drivers reacted by braking and swerving, doing their best not to hit him.
He managed to get across the Northbound Expressway and then stood in the left lane of the Southbound side, again biding his time for the right moment to charge across all lanes. Again, drivers braked at the sight of him.
The story ends well, remarkably. He made it safely across the Expressway, though I am certain his darting into traffic caused much anxiety and adverse reactions from drivers. Not only is crossing any highway extremely unsafe, but it could lead to accidents and serious or fatal injuries.
To the highway-crossing pedestrian and others like them, don’t do it. Walk around, take an overpass. No one’s life should be at stake for the sake of a quick errand. Darting into highway traffic defies logic and puts an unreasonable burden on drivers. No one wants to live with hitting a pedestrian when the entire situation could have been easily avoided.
