Stop sign not optional, as every school kid knows

Lorraine Sommerfeld

Maybe it was a coincidence that we were heading out for school supplies, maybe not. Were you driving a grey Dodge Journey in Burlington on Sunday afternoon? Leaving the library parking lot downtown, around 2:45? Stuck at that annoying light – you know, the one that takes forever to change?

Well, it was nice to see you taking matters into your own hands, and making a left on the red. I might've cut you some slack if you'd been going toward the hospital; I could have imagined some excuse. But you weren't. You'd already waited at least a minute. It was probably broken. Except it wasn't, as the kids that approached the intersection with their young jaws unhinged would attest. They pushed the button, waited for the walk signal and no doubt went home to tell their parents about you.

Don't bother telling me about aggravating, mistimed lights. I've lived in a court my entire life, and I reckon I've spent a good five years sitting at our corner, waiting to get out. It's a family joke, that light. And I know they could do better; come up to it at 2 in the morning and the sensor automatically changes it. Other times, I get all the garbage picked up in my van, all the spare change corralled, and still have time to get out and properly close the door someone didn't latch, all while waiting for a green.

But see, just like the street you were cooling your heels on, Dodge Journey, mine is a road to nowhere, and the red lights that make us grit our teeth give onto a main artery. Stay with me now: if those side street traffic signals were continually changing for every eager car, the main streets would be even more clogged. In this instance, yes, they are more special than you.

School starts in a few days, and I worry when I see things like this. We already have a stop sign a block away that is ignored. Ignored, even though it abuts the YMCA parking lot. How I wish they'd plant a traffic cop there for a week – it would probably pay off every overbudget project going on in this town. It's a needed stop sign at this T-shaped intersection; it's after a curve, and a yield sign wouldn't be safe. And yet, car after car flashes around the corner, oblivious to the numerous pedestrians that have long ago learned to fear for their lives.

We have a lot of apparent "stoptional" signs around here. Maybe it's all the cross-hatched streets found in a core area, or maybe it's cars deciding that if pedestrians can do stupid things, so can they. But as I tell my kids, just because a pedestrian does something stupid, you don't get to hit them.

The kids will be back in force this week, crowding on sidewalks, stepping off curbs, crossing against the lights and plotting to make your driving experience hell. They'll be on skateboards, on bikes and on foot. They'll be feeling invincible, kitted out with new backpacks and old habits, just like you once were.

The thing is, those kids, even as they break traffic laws and ignore signals, trust them just the same. They trust you'll stop on a red, they trust you won't thrust your hood out into a crosswalk, they trust you won't jam to make a left on a fading yellow. They believe in the power of a crossing guard's outstretched arms.

And they believe you remember what it was like. School's in. Go easy.

Lorraine Sommerfeld's column appears Saturday in Wheels and Mondays in Living. lorraineonline.ca

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