By Susan Sheu Santa Monica
This morning, a scene that is becoming more common occurred at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and 20th Street. My infant girl was in her jogging stroller and I was hustling to beat the stale green light. A typical Santa Monica car — a money-colored green Explorer with a whale tail license plate — was waiting to take a left. As I got to the safety of the sidewalk, the environmentalist or beach-lover shouted through his open window, “You stupid f---ing b---h!”
Now, I have been shouted at and honked at plenty during my 10 years of living in Southern California, both behind the wheel and in the crosswalk. I took it as a given when I lived in Westwood that type-A people, using Wilshire as their highway from Beverly Hills to Brentwood or vice versa, would honk at me if my jogging was too slow across the intersections at Sepulveda or Veteran. This kind of behavior is typical of the anonymity of those intersections and the sense of entitlement that often accompanies living on the Westside. However, in my four years of living in Santa Monica I have been disappointed to find more and more hostility directed at pedestrians, particularly in residential neighborhoods. It makes me wonder just what kind of traffic offense the police will actually stop. For example, I don’t think anyone will be pulled over in the intersections around Douglas Park (Wilshire at Chelsea or 25th Street and California Avenue at Chelsea or 25th Street) until a mother or a nanny and her children are actually struck and killed by a speeding or clueless driver.
Mind you, I am not one of the lackadaisical pedestrians who walk slowly, talk on the phone, and act like nobody’s schedule but my own is important. I usually walk quickly and give the thank-you wave to people who seem like Mother Theresa because they actually obey the law. Nor do I think that having a child with me gives me the right to have any more decency shown to me than if I didn’t. But having the baby with me slows me down, as anyone with a brain might imagine, and the motorists who imperil me daily don’t seem to realize this or care.
When did it become acceptable to intimidate or simply refuse to stop for families crossing the street? Will we need another incident like the one that happened last July at the Farmers’ Market to increase law enforcement and protect us?
In my neighborhood, near Beth Shir Shalom Temple on California, I routinely feel uneasy in a crosswalk with my child, my dog, or both, and listen to an impatient driver revving his/her engine as he/she gabs on a cell phone. Every day I play chicken with drivers on Washington or California who come within a foot or so of the stroller, or me as they speed through the intersection. Apparently, we inconvenience people by walking to most of the places we go.
Unfortunately, this in one of the reasons we live where we live, in Santa Monica. I have been disappointed to find that the nastiness I was used to on the other side of the 405 freeway has found its way over to our beach community. We are, of course, in the city and on the grid, so the rules and mores of urban living have always applied. For example, it’s just plain stupid to imagine that living in our beautiful, green city means that it’s reasonable to ask dog owners to stop their dogs from peeing on the lawn. It is reasonable, however, to require them to pick up after the dogs. If the behavior were only rude, then we could not stop it nor legislate against it. But in the case of mowing down pedestrians because they inconvenience you or slow you down, the nastiness is actually dangerous and unlawful, and must be stopped.
About once a week in my neighborhood I see a Santa Monica Police car roll through a stop sign and turn without signaling. The siren and lights are always off, so I assume there’s no emergency. Maybe the police would be aware of the problem and set an example if they actually drove according to the law.
We need speed bumps on the streets, like California Avenue, that motorists are using as detours for busy streets like Wilshire or Montana. Let’s put that measure back on the ballot.
And do those automatic cameras in the intersections still work? I don’t ever see them flashing anymore when a car rushes through a red light. The more tickets motorists receive for breaking traffic laws, the more incentive there will be to drive like human beings.
Currently the police ignore the sudden U-turns, lack of turn signal use, and speeding through intersections, that are going to get us killed, whether we’re in a car or walking. I urge the Santa Monica Police to get on the stick and protect us from the motorists that have forgotten that the pedestrian has the right of way.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 31, 2004. Read the original PDF.