Friday, March 29, 2013

Smartphone, Stupid Driver

Yet another dog walk.  Getting out, seeing the city in the cool morning air, you get to see things that others don't necessarily see.

My dog is old, moves very slowly.  About 1 mile in an hour at this point.  So I have a lot of time to think, a lot of time to observe.

This particular morning, cool, crisp, and clear, I was walking along Wilton Drive.  Wilton Drive should be called Wilton Highway because it is four lanes with a turn lane in the middle, bracketed by a parking lane.   Illogical configuration for a "Downtown Shopping Street", it lends itself more for people who are trying to get through here instead of to here. 

The morning rush hour coincided with my morning dog walk this day.  I was up a little late, so I got to see the Drive become the Raceway.

There was a gap in traffic, and here came this car, an older Toyota Camry.  Typically when I see one of those here, I expect a bad driver and this time I was unfortunately correct.

Coming around the curve past City Hall and the Shoppes, she was driving a bit too fast for conditions.  I didn't have a stop watch but I think I'd win a bet that she was speeding.  The speed wasn't really a problem, for that particular moment there was nobody either direction on the half of the Drive that I could see.

Lettie was sniffing a pole, and I was absentmindedly watching this green car come flying up the Drive.  The driver was doing a bad job of keeping the car piloted within the stripes of the lane, and I was wondering if I wasn't going to have to call the police because of a future accident.  Had it been late in the evening I would have thought DUI. 

The "I" that was the influence in this case was obvious when she weaved out of her lane and looked up to her steering wheel to correct her direction.   She was a distracted driver.  She had her smartphone out and was most likely texting someone.

Idiot.  

Leave the phone in your pocket.  Your right to stay informed and inform others does not mean that you have the right to put the rest of the public at risk.

She sped past me while she went back to her important business of texting when she rolled through the stale-yellow of the stop light at NE 9th Avenue and onward toward Five Points.

I'm glad I was on the sidewalk.

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