A Little Smug Justice

One of my biggest pet peeves about living in Utah is the complete lack of consideration drivers have towards pedestrians and the complete disregard they have towards traffic laws concerning pedestrians. If I can, I prefer to walk with the kids rather than drive especially to the library, the park, and to the store when I only need to pick up some milk. Each time I step out my door pushing my double stroller, I feel like I am taking my life and my children's lives in my hands just to cross the street. We live near a busy street in Provo, and when I cross the street I never know whether cars will stop for me or not.

The intersection where I cross this street does not have a marked cross walk, however, any intersection, marked or not, is a legal place for pedestrian to cross. I know this because twice a year Provo sends out a newsletter reminding people of traffic laws concerning cars and pedestrians. I think I must be the only person in Provo who reads this newsletter because I am constantly amazed by the things drivers do: they speed up and then slam on their brakes and make nasty faces at me, they change lanes so they will not have to stop, and if a car does stop other cars will just go around them without slowing down, as well driving about 50 mph on 35 mph rode. And just so you know changing lanes when a pedestrian is crossing the street and not stopping, and especially going around a car that is stop for a pedestrian, is a traffic violation.

Well, yesterday I finally got some just justice for all the times I have cars callously ignore me and endangered my children's lives by not obeying the traffic laws. As I was waiting for traffic to pass before crossing the street, a police car in the right lane stopped for me. I started to cross but as I did so I notice the car coming up behind the stopped police car starting to accelerate and change lanes into the left. I had to stop in the middle of the street until she passed to continue across (the cars coming from the opposite direction had already stopped for me). As I reached the other side of the street, I heard the policeman gun his engine. I turned to look and saw him speeding up to pull over the car that had failed to stop. I felt just a little bit smug that someone was finally being given a ticket because they failed to stop for me and children.