Walk This Way

Sitting in the BPAC meeting talking about pedestrian facilities, specifically crosswalks and it occurs to me that automobiles have such a sense of entitlement to the road they rarely slow down when they see a pedestrian in the street. I'm not innocent, either. I've been driving before and seen someone in the middle of Poplar and said "Hey dummy, use the crosswalk!"

And by law they should use a crosswalk. That often means walking out of your way to get to your destination; and we know how lazy Americans are.

So we can do several things:

Non-traditional crosswalks. In the same way that people often don't use the exact paved path between buildings on campus and instead make their own natural more direct path let's put some crosswalks in the middle of the block or at a three-way intersection.

Eliminate jaywalking fines. You shouldn't be punished for walking. It seems this fine only serves to make automobiles a priority.

Increase hit and run fines. I looked for statistics on Memphis fines but it proved kind of difficult on my phone. But if we really value human life prove it.