A Pox on your Car Culture
I would like every person who speeds down my city streets to spend a day as a pedestrian. I would ban them all from their cars for 24 hours and force them to walk the crumbly sidewalks and crosswalks of their daily commute. Maybe firsthand experience is the only way for the asshole drivers to discover why all pedestrians in this city hate them with a passion normally reserved for floundering Republican presidents. I take my life into my own hands every time i cross the 4-lanes of inbound or outbound cubs traffic near my house, and I'm tired of it*.
This morning one of my friends was hit crossing (on a green, in a crosswalk) the Ashland superhighway. All we know right now is that he's not critical and is in the hospital undergoing x-rays and tests. Nothing is more terrifying than watching someone be hit by a car... except perhaps BEING hit by the car. With the recklessness of so many drivers I know it is inevitable that I'll be hit by a 4-wheeled asshole.
* I am anxiously awaiting the reconstruction of my el station because it means there will be a stairwell on MY side of the 4-lane thoroughfare. Quick quick, tear down my el stop before I get hit by lost baseball fan.