Most people in my neck of the woods hate magpies. Even the vegans among us are quick to take up arms against this bird. I kind of like them (the magpies that is).
Now I’m not saying they haven’t caused me grief from time to time. They pestered my last husky when she was a pup and then through the good years she actually caught a few of them, and then they had their revenge in her last few weak years. They would arrive in groups of three to five, and some would distract her while the others emptied her food bowl. And they can be noisier than a nightclub.
But I like the looks of them, and their obvious intelligence and resourcefulness. They are part of the jay family (we get blue jays around here too; just as noisy and an even finer looking bird) which brings me to the topic at hand….jaywalking.
Yesterday evening when I picked up the phone I was asked and I agreed to do a survey regarding jaywalking. They wanted to know my general attitudes toward jaywalking, whether I knew about the new fine hikes, and whether it would affect my behavior, and whether I knew about the jaywalkers who had died in the previous year.
The fine for jaywalking in this city is increasing to $250. I’m not sure how this compares to other bylaw penalties but the jump is from a previous $40.
I let the people know that I jaywalked each and every day, I would continue to do so but with a greater lookout for police, and that I considered it ridiculous. One of the questions was how many times a week I was inconvenienced by a jaywalker and I said never though I was often inconvenienced by people who without warning started across crosswalks without even looking. This was particularly bad in winter when icy conditions might make it difficult to stop. To me, crosswalks were a greater danger than people who were actively working around my vehicle.
By the time I hung up the phone I was incensed, and within the hour I was livid. Oddly enough, more than world hunger or fossil fuels or walmart, this was the issue that might galvanize my political soul. This is one that would get me onto the streets and up onto the ramparts. This struck to my very soul, this imposition on my pedestrianism, this imperialistic disregard of my rights in favour of the omnipresent automobile. The bastards!!
I went online to check out the bylaws and what constituted jaywalking and where. It seems everywhere you cross not at the end of a street or a designated crosswalk was jaywalking. In other words, I could hypothetically at three in the morning visit a neighbor who lives across the street on our shared cul de sac. No traffic even heard but the cop who lives between us and dislikes me could give me a ticket for not walking to the end of the block, crossing there and walking back.
Now that is an extreme. Quite frankly, I think I should have the right to cross the road anywhere I wish, in mainstream traffic if I wish, and let me determine if it is safe or not. I am happy to pay for my failure if I run in front of a car. The thing is, I think that though traffic should flow, people who happen to clothe themselves in an automobile should not automatically be guaranteed rights they did not have before.
Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing I hate worse than a pedestrian who does not appreciate the killing power of a vehicle, one who steps out without looking (even a green walk at the light). What this bylaw is communicating to me is that I don’t have the brains to cross a road. That I cannot make the required calculations to avoid traffic and stay alive. It is also rather fascist in that it is telling me where I can and cannot walk, in the same city I pay my taxes.
Yes, people died jaywalking last year. And they will die this year. And people died falling off balconies too….should going out on your balcony be illegal? Odds are the people who died off the balconies and some of those on the roads were not paying attention, were a little oblivious to the fact that life requires attention.
Life needs a few reminders of what it is. It is not numb wandering in utter safety. There should be some danger in this world and there should certainly be some room for people who don’t mind a little of it. Those who worry about cars can walk to the end of the street and cross there. I won’t stop them from doing so. All I ask is the same courtesy.
3 comments ↓
Magpies: They bother me not only because they are loud and annoying, but because they do not belong here. Same as pigeons. Some git of an Englishman decided that it would be charming to have birds from back home here in the colonies. It’s not charming.
Jaywalkers: Like anything else it’s the idiots who spoil it for everyone. I hate jaywalkers, but only when they’re stupid about it. The people who really ball things up and end up getting these laws enacted are the kind but stupid drivers who stop for pedestrians when and where they shouldn’t (you’ve ranted about this before). Our culture is very driver centered. I suspect that the laws of the road tend to favour drivers because the people who owned the first cars were rich bastards. Now they are only slightly less rich bastards and the laws are firmly entrenched and, clearly, getting worse. This sense of entitlement often translates into recklessness , excessive speed, and generally just asshole behaviour. I have nearly been hit in many crosswalks and at lights not because of my inattention or carelessness. My little carbon footprint is getting run over by many too many tire tracks.
Jayhawkers: Don’t even get me started.
Hey, this is great, and you know what? You see this scenario different than a lot of people will. They have a simplistic view of this simply being the bolstering of an accepted rule. Especially if they usually view the world from an automobile, they think this law or enforcement of the law is for them, in their best interests.
Write this, p. Write an editorial with these points, and you can keep the emotional parts, too, or the description of your emotions. That’s actually good in this case, don’t make it a straight read or too objective, sometimes emotions are positive and they will get the reader’s attention. Make it clear you are infuriated to have your basic rights called into question. And send this to all the major newspapers in your area. Make noise. This is intelligent noise; it’s good.
Already in the works. I’ve asked for clarification from bylaw enforcement (and it is worse than I thought..walking down or across your back alley qualifies as jaywalking….my dog walks often include that), I’ve written for copies of the minutes of the city council meeting discussing this, and now have the email contacts for my councils, the mayor, and the head of the traffic board that started this going. And yes, big letter to the local papers. But I am going to see if it is actually possible to get a change here. Thinking of looking into citizen’s arrest parameters, and then complain about the constant jaywalking about all these key people. That might get them thinking its time for a change.
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