Let the light be your guide

I was walking south down 18th street to lunch yesterday, got to N Street and heard a loud screech of tires over on Connecticut. A screech of tires is like someone yelling "Hey you!": you always look on impulse, even if you don't need to. So I looked right a minivan hit a woman crossing Connecticut. She flew up on the van's hood and then shot forward onto the street, tumbling in front of the car. Description can't do it justice. Simply: she was hit hard.

The driver of the van got out and ran to this woman—a well-dressed young professional that the South Dupont/Farragut area is full of on weekdays—but as he got to her, she jumped up and started to try and run away, panicked. It was a surreal sight and one that I won't forget too soon. The driver got her to calm down and sit on the median running down Connecticut, a group of people closer to her gathered around, some on their phones, and as I walked away, I could see the woman conscious, talking and even smiling, but I assume that it was shock. If she got out of that without a concussion or broken bones, it would be a physics miracle.

I assumed at first that it was a case of careless jaywalking, but I remembered how fucked up that intersection is. Most of the crosswalks on Connecticut avenue are confusing half-and-half affairs, where you have a walk signal for the near side of the street and another for the far side, and they're not synced. It's all too easy to get a walk signal for the near side and forget that you're still not cleared for the far. Considering how hard the van hit her and that she just stepped in front of a car, I think it's safe to assume that this is what happened.

The rest of the day, I was hyper-aware both of my street-crossing habits and the practices of others. I saw that all-too-common sight of the "I'm so city" pedestrians, making a show of their urban toughness by walking slowly in front of oncoming traffic. I saw a young couple cross in the middle of a block and then get pissed off at the driver who had to slow to a halt to let them cross.

The point of not jaywalking to me is not about not breaking the law; it's about order. You don't jaywalk not because you want to be a boy scout and adhere to any and every law. You should not jaywalk simply because it's not your fucking turn. You shouldn't jaywalk at the very least for the same reason that you don't just cut in line in the grocery store. No one would ever do that, yet jaywalking is often considered a sign of urban savvy, even with the added element of possible death.

My points are getting lost in rambling here. I just wanted to remind myself (and you) that it's good to occasionally relearn that childhood lesson to be careful when you cross the street. I'm just sorry that I had to relearn it at the expense of a woman who just misread the crosswalk light one afternoon on her lunch break.