Walk At Your Own Risk

What is up with the drivers around here?

Last week, I was almost hit by a car.  

OK, it's not like I had to jump across the hood, but I was in the middle of the crosswalk at E. Oxford and Mt. Vernon avenues with my 1-year-old on my hip, a massive box under my other arm and my 3-year-old dilligently clinging to my pants pocket. This guy drove through the crosswalk and didn't even tap his breaks, staring at us in the middle of the road the entire time. The car behind him did the same.  

I was furious.

If I was darting across the road without a crosswalk or jumping out into traffic with little warning, I might understand. But I'm very cautious with my kids. We walk the extra distance to a crosswalk and, while we may not always move quickly, I make sure we cross in significant traffic gaps so that drivers have more than enough heads up.

Crossing to at Mt. Vernon and E. Randolph, an impatient commuter came so close to my family and our stroller that my husband was able to slap the hood of the car as it passed. Similarly, cars routinely run through the crosswalks on Kennedy Street, the primary road through Warwick Village.  

Per Virginia Code 46.2-924, the fine for motorists who fail to yield to pedestrians within a sign-marked crosswalk is $100 to $500. But per the City of Alexandria's website, "the existance of a crosswalk does not require motorists to stop for pedestrians waiting to cross the street."

The $25,000 rapid flash beacons recently installed at the intersection of Mt. Vernon Avenue and Kennedy Street and at the Braddock Road Metro station definitely seem to catch the attention of drivers. 

If we're serious about Del Ray being "Where Main Street Still Exists," we need to start taking pedestrian safety seriously.