Left In Lowell

They’re Back!!

10 Responses to “They’re Back!!”

1. -b Says:
   September 24th, 2009 at 11:37 pm

   One of my top five annoyances with living in this city.

   Every kid under the age of 21 in this city seems to take great pride in walking out in front of traffic to piss divers off. And I have no doubt that they are well aware of their actions - it seems like it’s the cool thing to do.

   I have re-routed by commute around downtown because I am so fed up with it. Now if I could only find a good alternate route to Bridge Street - which is also plagued with these fools.

2. Paul@01852 Says:
   September 25th, 2009 at 6:19 am

   Sorry Mimi but I have to strongly disagree! I have thought a lot about why so many young people jaywalk with absolute no clue and have come to the conclusin that it is really not their fault! And I truly mean this. It is their parents’ and our society’s fault. How many of these kids actually walked to school every day? Either mommy or daddy drove them or they took a bus. I have never lived further than a half mile from my children’s schools until they reached high school age. When they were in early grammar school there was a city school bus that picked them up and then in later grammar and jr. high they were driven to my huge regret (and even protestations at the time!). Also since the 70’s many children have been bussed to schools outside their local neighborhoods. When I was in school we walked! We got exercise! We were taught *how* to cross a street–that you didn’t dawdle and that you crossed at a crosswalk safely. We were made by the crossing guard to stop and look both ways, even if the guard had already stopped traffic for us. We had crossing gurads at every major intersection who enforced the teaching of safe crossing. Today there may be one guard who is directly in front of the school if that. As I watch these guards they rush out into the middle of the street to stop traffic and children aren’t made to stop and look both ways but are allowed to just mosey on out without a care. So next time a young jaywalker obstructs your progress think of the mistakes we all made; think about how our so-called concern for our children’s safety has actually made them *less* safe!

3. Victoria Says:
   September 25th, 2009 at 7:56 am

   Seems to me that the main rule that the kids don’t follow, and I believe have no awareness that it exists, is this: cross the street when the light turns red for the street you want to cross. Like Paul, I don’t think anyone has ever taught them that rule, although I won’t give them a free pass entirely. Lots of the kids DO walk to elementary and middle school and do know most of the rules. Besides, it is never too late to learn. After school there’s always plenty of police in the downtown. Why not have them enforce the rule? Awareness comes in stages. It’s not just something that bothers adults, either. When my daughter got her license, she complained like crazy about the kids in the downtown, fearful she was going to hit someone. I hope that is not what it takes before someone helps them learn.

4. Smooth Says:
   September 25th, 2009 at 10:31 am

   It must be nice to have this as one of your major concerns in life…

5. KMM Says:
   September 25th, 2009 at 11:34 am

   Here’s another thought…most of the people who complain about pedestrians live in suburbs where no one walks and would certainly never find themselves crossing a street.
   If you live in a suburban neighborhood and do not wish to deal with pesky pedestrians; find another route.
   I should also point out that you are talking about my neighborhood and I assure Mimi more people would walk in “painted-crosswalks” if we had any…including me.

6. Mr. Lynne Says:
   September 25th, 2009 at 1:41 pm

   Sometimes a blog can be a place to rant about a minor pet peeve that happens to be pushing your buttons at the time.

7. just me Says:
   September 26th, 2009 at 9:47 am

   Downtown is nothing compared to UMass north campas at University Ave. How those kids made it to collage amazes me.

8. C R Krieger Says:
   September 26th, 2009 at 8:49 pm

   I thinks the first commentator hit the key issue WRT this problem.  The unthinking peds cause drivers to avoid the downtown.

   If we wish the downtown to grow and thrive, we need people to come to the downtown.  Pushing them away by making it harder to drive is economically unsophisticated.

   If it is an education problem, as Paul and Victoria say, then we have a police force to do the education.  If our police show up for a couple of weeks and start with blow the whistle on the jay walkers and then move to tickets, we can put this problem back in the bottle.  Then we will just need the police to show up once in a while.

   The other solution is too drastic to consider, but not so drastic that I haven’t had to participate in it.  I will call it “Bus Monitor.” A long time ago I lived in a place where the parents, usually the fathers, were expected to do bus duty, riding the bus to school and then again back home.  No excuse about “having to be at work.  The reason was to help the children not be unruly.  Could we do this here, as part of a Citizen’s responsibility to support their child?  Maybe.  In this case we could put them at crosswalks.  The parents would quickly tire of the responsibility and that might trickle down into helping the teenagers learn about the rules of walking.

   As for college kids, aside from making Chancellor Meehan and his staff pull road guard duty, I have no recommendations.

   Regards  —  Cliff

9. waittilnextyr Says:
   September 27th, 2009 at 10:43 am

   There was an incident in Holyoke on Friday where a DUI driver hit and killed a 6-year old boy in a cross-walk.

   Apparently, the light was green for the driver, but in the newspaper account the police noted that the boy had the right to cross on green.

   How many drivers give way to pedestrians entering a cross-walk when the vehicle has a green light?

10. joe from Lowell Says:
    September 28th, 2009 at 12:01 pm

    This is not an educational problem.

    You don’t deliberately slow down when walking in front of line of cars because nobody taught you how to cross the street.

    You do it because you get off on screwing with people.

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