A Note to Morning Commuters on Sunset Boulevard

Dear Sunset Blvd. commuters:

I must respectfully request your cooperation on the matter of allowing pedestrians to cross the crosswalk on Sunset Blvd. at Las Palmas Ave. As a pedestrian, I must daily walk across Sunset Blvd. at that very intersection. Unfortunately, local pedestrians and walking tourists have not been blessed with a stoplight at that particular junction, as there is one nearby at Sunset and Cherokee. The civil engineers that laid out this part of Los Angeles, as diligent and detail-oriented as they are, didn't even see it fit to throw us a bone and give us one of those sets of blinking yellow lights that drivers have been programmed to ignore. At least with those, drivers hesitate for a moment, buying us pedestrians precious time to scurry beyond the path of the oncoming vehicles. However, it has become clear to me over the past year that the enormous yellow signs on either side of the street indicating that the very thick, unmissable white lines painted across the street are in fact a crosswalk, are not enough of a warning for the average L.A. driver to yield the right of way to a pedestrian, or even to slow down. Now, I'm not a jaywalker, nor have I ever been -- but I feel I must remind you that the pedestrian has the right of way in this scenario.

Now, I'm not making this appeal to you with the foolish assumption that human life is valuable to you. Of course I wouldn't ask you to slow down or yield to me just because I want to live or go about my life without being crippled. I mean, what's in it for you?

I'm making this appeal to you on the basis that a collision with a pedestrian will damage your vehicle. Yes, your masterfully crafted, German engineered luxury automobile will withstand a lot more than my feeble human body -- however, I might at least break up one of your headlights, maybe put a dent on your hood -- depending on the color of your vehicle, you might have to worry about a trip to the carwash to get rid of the nasty bloodstains. Who wants that? And though your insurance will afford you the bodywork needed to hammer out the dents in your auto, and your lawyer will find some way to put me at fault -- think of all the red tape. Really. It would take hours to go through all that trouble...versus just a few seconds to slow down for a pedestrian. I usually even wait for the light at Sunset and Cherokee to turn red, so that you'll only have to slow down at a time when you should be slowing down anyway -- I know it's really important you get right up to the light as quickly as possible so you can beat that guy in the souped up Honda off the line -- just wait until the light at Seward. You'll get 'im.

And when you're explaining to your boss why you arrived at 9:05am and 33 seconds instead of 9:05am and 29 seconds, just tell him some a-hole stepped out in front of your car at Sunset and Las Palmas, and you were worried about having to scrape flesh out of the grill of your car -- which would have made you even later...

Thanks for your time and cooperation.

Sincerely,

Nathan M. Rodgers, pedestrian