Cars vs. Pedestrians?

So, it's my last working day here at The Big Corporate. This in itself is exciting but also equally nerve racking, making sure I've removed all the personal stuff I want to keep from my laptop hard drive and onto my external drive as well as making sure all my bits and bobs are out of the laptop bag itself. But today will be light and pleasant. I have an exit interview with HR - in these big companies, it's obligatory to let them know why you're leaving ... and I can't wait to tell them :) And then I have a last lunch with TheBrad, My Ex-Manager and Singher.

Last night was good ... aside from the fact that no one mentioned we were playing the later Action Cricket game at 19h40 instead of 18h30. That kinda messed up any evening plans Varen & I had, but he was thrilled to spend some time enjoying his new internet connection at home :)

But we had a fantastically convincing win (169 to 79) and I played a brilliant game too :) It was great fun and I am gonna miss it ...

I had an interesting experience on my drive to Action Cricket. On one of the roads I drive along, there were no less than 3 "shadows" crossing in front of me, one on a bike no less! It was hectic, the street lights were out (and no, load-shedding was not to blame) and these people were wearing what appear to be pitch black. The moon was rising and although it was beautifully full last night, did nothing to highlight their crossing! Hello people, what are you thinking? I barely managed to see each one of them (they weren't crossing together people, these were 3 separate incidents in less than 5 minutes) as the oncoming car's lights shone a halo around each of them.

I drove on highly annoyed. Honestly, if you're going to be crossing a road in darkness, while wearing pitch black clothing, you deserve to be run-over. And then, as I was almost at Action Cricket, the traffic ground to a halt. There was a police car with blue lights flashing and a car with it's hazard lights blinking, stopped in the middle of the road ahead. As I drove past, I saw that some unfortunate driver had obviously knocked over an even more unfortunate pedestrian jay-walker who was now lying in front of his car. Just as I was thinking this deserved to happen.

It was quite a shocking experience and I don't really know where I stand on the issue any more. I mean, it's easy to stand on one side of the fence until you see it actually happen. I think I'm still on the side of the cars tho. Hello, here's a tiny little frail-by-comparison person crossing the road ... and here comes a big giant moving metal machine, who's primary domain said person has just wandered into, who do you think science is gonna favour? And I'm not saying that drivers should aim for pedestrians, just that pedestrians need to realise that when crossing the road (at night, wearing all black?), you are the lesser being and need to be the one watching your back and being especially careful. Hint: If you see headlights coming your way, it's probably best to wait on the pavement.

I can only compare it to birds vs. airplanes. See, that analogy is great, birds are living creatures (as are the pedestrians) and planes are man-made (like the cars). And in the air, if a bird happens to cross paths with a plane, there is little chance of it's survival ... the only difference here is that there's really no chance of swerving out of the way by the plane. So, I think perhaps it's pure arrogance on the part of the pedestrians.

I have a friend who has the most ridiculous opinion of the situation (and I wonder how many other people do too. If there are many of you out there, then this could be the cause of pedestrian silliness). She thinks (when she's driving) that she has right of way and pedestrians must stay out of her way yet she also firmly believes (when she's walking), that cars should stop if she steps into the road. Could you get a more contradictory thought? And perhaps, in the light of day this is viable, and perhaps at pedestrian crossing it would be too (if our South African pedestrians used them ... hell, even I don't!) but at night, when there's no light for a driver to see you and you're not wearing anything that might show up in the darkness, is it really a fair expectation? Should you as the pedestrian not be the responsible one in that situation? Really?