My esteemed colleague Michael Haynes has a column forthcoming on the subject of endangered Knoxville pedestrians, which we will be posting soon. But in the meantime, an experience this morning:
I was walking to the library with a friend and came to the four-way stop there at Church and Walnut. Theoretically a four-way stop is sort of the safest pedestrian intersection, because, you know, everybody stops. (NB: I cross this intersection often with my children, as do many other library-bound parents.) So before crossing Church we stop and give the ol' look-both-ways -- and turn our heads just in time to see a white Suburban bearing down and blowing straight through the intersection headed west, without so much as a blink at the stop sign. ("White Suburban" is not a racial remark in this context, fwiw.) Shaking our fists ineffectually at the car's receding taillights, we cross Church to the southeast corner and turn to cross Walnut. We have already stepped into the intersection when a besuited young guy in an approaching black SUV (missed the make) barrels up and deigns to stop right in the middle of the crosswalk -- and then, despite me and my companion being already halfway across the street and starting to walk around his protruding grill, he starts to roll forward like he's going to just run us over. I shout "Hey!" and then he finally sees us. I give him a wide-handed "Dude WTF" look and he gives me a sort of sneery shrug and mouths "Sorry," like he's irritated at us for being in the middle of his street. Through his half-open window I shout, "Watch where you're going! A lot of people have been hit around here lately." He sort of shakes his head and revs up through the intersection. As bad as things can be for pedestrians downtown, I think that's the first time I've nearly been hit twice in one minute.
WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING, PEOPLE. STREETS ARE NOT ONLY FOR CARS.
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