Please, drive with courtesy
Saturday morning on my way to Green Lake, I got off Aurora/99 from Green Lake Way exit and stop at the first traffic light. A wheelchair person was slowly and steadily crossing the street in front of me.
As you can see from the map, a triangle shape island is located in between crossing from A to B. The wheelchair person made his way to the island but couldn’t continue the 2nd half of the crossing. An old man in his big old car stop right on the crossing line. The disabled access to the cross line was completely blocked as well. The wheelchair person signaled his intention to cross the street. The old man moved his car few feet forward. With him already illegally stopping on the cross line, there was no room for him to go further without driving into the street traffic in front of us. So he backed up a few feet, that put him right back to here he were.
The whole time there was not a single vehicle approaching his lane or behind his car. But he refused to backup behind the cross line where he as a driver was supposed to be in the first place.
The wheelchair person waited and attempted to steer his wheelchair perhaps around the vehicle to cross the street. But there was just no way with the old fool and his big car there, not budging a bit.
Eventually the light turned green. The big old car carried its apathetic driver away. The wheelchair person had to wait for the next red light to finish his crossing.
It’s no news certain people simply shouldn’t be driving. What I saw that day was mere reflection of one driver’s indifference to regulations and lack of courtesy to other people. Unfortunately there were too many drivers on the road that’s exactly like this one. There was time I was one of them. Since I started riding motorcycle and taking public transportation, I found myself under the mercy of careless drivers. These days I’m more aware of pedestrians and cyclists when I’m driving. Other people’s safety should be again and again emphasis to new drivers. It’s our nature to do what’s convenient for ourselves. But for the sake of everyone else, we need harsher punishments for irresponsible drivers.