Friday, February 18, 2011
Random Memphis Frogger
Posted by Matt Writt on Fri, Feb 18, 2011 at 9:32 AM
My girlfriend and I have a running joke about pedestrians in Memphis' roadways. Driving around town can be like playing Frogger, except you're in one of the cars and the idea is to keep from hitting someone. This game is called Memphis Frogger.
Drive around Memphis on any given day, and you'll likely see someone on foot crossing a street at an inopportune place or time. If jaywalking is even a crime in Memphis (is it?), it's not policed.
I'm convinced that this phenomena is entirely unrelated to gender, race, economic status or any other designation I determine while passing at 35-45 miles per hour. But it's a peculiarly common behavior in Memphis. (More than anything, it's a statement about our car-centric society and the lack of pedestrian friendly roadways, but that's a topic for a post that's not titled "Memphis Frogger.")
This morning, I saw a group crossing the street from a parking lot to an office building. As the group came to the curb and looked at traffic, two waited on the curb while one person stepped into the roadway.
It occurred to me that these are the two styles of crossing the street.
Style 1 are the people who stay on the curb until they see a gap in both directions of traffic. They've calculated a way to get all the way across before they step off the curb.
Style 2 takes it one lane at a time, starting with the closest. This is where Frogger begins.
The one thing that amazes me is that I've never seen anyone splattered by traffic (see above). As far as I've seen, both styles will get you across the road. Style 1 may cause you to wait for a few minutes. Style 2 may land you on the center stripe of Union Ave. with traffic screaming past on either side of you. But you'll get across.
Crossing the street is mundane. It's just about the definition of a mundane activity. But I think it says something about how we make decisions in our lives.
I'm not trying to sermonize about risk taking - "Are YOU the sort of person who will jump right out there?" - because I don't think there's a right or wrong here. I just know my style, and you won't see me stranded halfway across the street.
Comments (2)
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There are in fact laws on the books against jaywalking; obviously it isn't something that is really enforced, but does protect the driver in cases of pedestrians being hit while jaywalking. Of course, it is the driver's legal responsibility to avoid an accident to the best of his or her ability, but it is reassuring to know that if some dip walks out right in front of my car I won't be held criminally accountable.
After a bit of research, I found that the penalty for jaywalking in Memphis is a $50 fine or up to 30 days in jail. Now, I certainly don't think someone should be incarcerated for jaywalking (unless obviously they cause an accident), but think of all of the money the city could be bringing in and how many accidents could be avoided if they actually did start to enforce this law?!
So now, you can add a points system to your Memphis Frogger game! No, I don't mean actually trying to run people over - but each time you see a jaywalker add 50 points....I'd be quite interested to know how many points, i.e. dollars, you can rack up in a given day.
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Driving on Riverdale the other night, six lanes, I thought I detected movement ahead of me. Basically, a car light disappeared momentarily. I hit the brakes, more out of instinct than anything, and barely avoided creaming three teenagers dressed almost entirely in black.
Then a few days ago on Ridgeway, three more teenagers crossed in front of me at the most leisurely and careless pace I've ever seen in a pedestrian with full mobility. I came to a complete stop while they wandered by in front of my car. Only one of them managed to turn her head enough to glance at me. They were almost run over in the next lane by a driver that either didn't see them or didn't care.
I've never seen anyone hit, but I once gave aid to a man I found lying in the street. He had just been run over. I also worked with a guy who was killed crossing Democrat on his way to the hub. He was working a second job there just so he could get insurance. Too sad.
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