You know...
Jan. 28th, 2004 06:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eruthros... I really don't think Philadelphia loves me back. I mean, I was dubious from the start; the state allows discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. And the closest real hot-tubbing place is 42.3 miles away, in Princeton, NJ.
But now I'm sure. Philadelphia's not merely neutral on the subject of pedestrians. Oh no. Philadelphia hates pedestrians on a deep and personal level. I had my suspicions before, of course. But they were confirmed yesterday.
Yesterday I walked 4.5 miles to cover the same distance as a 2-mile drive.
Why? Well, because Philadelphia, in its infinite wisdom, has decided to stick a damn big road in the middle of the route that a pedestrian cannot a) walk along or b) cross without getting killed. Philadelphia could put a pedestrian tunnel in. Maybe an overpass. Possibly it could have gone so far as to put in a real, honest to god, pedestrian crosswalk, with one of those little blinking lights that turns from a little man to a hand. (I realize that's asking a lot, since there's only one other crosswalk in the whole damn city with an actual pedestrian light where you can take your turn and be reasonably certain of not getting killed.) But did it? No.
So instead I got to the corner of Wissahickon and Lincoln, after walking a mile down Wissahickon with no sidewalks, because rich people are allowed to not have sidewalks, thus absolving them of having the shovel anything to make allowances for pedestrians. I'd already gone out of my way a bit, since the straight-line route would have been Lincoln Drive, which doesn't really make space for pedestrians, unless by "space for pedestrians" you mean "the right lane, if you're willing to share it with large and fast-moving vehicles." And I had to cross that intersection to keep going. I noticed a little "no pedestrian crossing sign,' but that wouldn't have stopped me. If they're not going to give me a crosswalk anywhere along Lincoln Drive, they can bite me and I'll cross wherever I damn well please. What did stop me was watching traffic for a few light cycles and realizing that there really was no way to cross without getting killed.
And I really do mean that. I've done some incredibly stupid things as a pedestrian. I've crossed Highway 1 at its widest during rush hour while carrying surveying equipment. I've crossed Market Street in San Francisco during a blackout -- no light, no traffic dude. I've climbed fences. I've taken short-cuts. I accidentally crossed Mission Street against the light during rush hour when I was sick. I've walked the overpass between the Pinole and Hilltop shopping centers. Which is technically legal, but no less stupid for all that -- two freeway on-ramps spin off that overpass, and neither has a light, and as a pedestrian you've got to attempt to cross them. And I'm sure I've done stupider things that I just can't remember right now. This would have been stupider than all of those things put together.
So I turned around, and walked back up the hill to Walnut Street so I could take the Walnut Street overpass over Lincoln Drive. Only way to get on this overpass for a pedestrian on that side of Lincoln is two blocks from the Evil Intersection of Doom, so that wasn't far out of my way. Only then it takes you about a mile in the wrong direction and dumps you down on another street going in a wrong direction and eventually you make a giant two-mile loop in order to get around one. damn. street.
See? Philadelphia can claim it all it wants, but it clearly doesn't love me for who I am.
But now I'm sure. Philadelphia's not merely neutral on the subject of pedestrians. Oh no. Philadelphia hates pedestrians on a deep and personal level. I had my suspicions before, of course. But they were confirmed yesterday.
Yesterday I walked 4.5 miles to cover the same distance as a 2-mile drive.
Why? Well, because Philadelphia, in its infinite wisdom, has decided to stick a damn big road in the middle of the route that a pedestrian cannot a) walk along or b) cross without getting killed. Philadelphia could put a pedestrian tunnel in. Maybe an overpass. Possibly it could have gone so far as to put in a real, honest to god, pedestrian crosswalk, with one of those little blinking lights that turns from a little man to a hand. (I realize that's asking a lot, since there's only one other crosswalk in the whole damn city with an actual pedestrian light where you can take your turn and be reasonably certain of not getting killed.) But did it? No.
So instead I got to the corner of Wissahickon and Lincoln, after walking a mile down Wissahickon with no sidewalks, because rich people are allowed to not have sidewalks, thus absolving them of having the shovel anything to make allowances for pedestrians. I'd already gone out of my way a bit, since the straight-line route would have been Lincoln Drive, which doesn't really make space for pedestrians, unless by "space for pedestrians" you mean "the right lane, if you're willing to share it with large and fast-moving vehicles." And I had to cross that intersection to keep going. I noticed a little "no pedestrian crossing sign,' but that wouldn't have stopped me. If they're not going to give me a crosswalk anywhere along Lincoln Drive, they can bite me and I'll cross wherever I damn well please. What did stop me was watching traffic for a few light cycles and realizing that there really was no way to cross without getting killed.
And I really do mean that. I've done some incredibly stupid things as a pedestrian. I've crossed Highway 1 at its widest during rush hour while carrying surveying equipment. I've crossed Market Street in San Francisco during a blackout -- no light, no traffic dude. I've climbed fences. I've taken short-cuts. I accidentally crossed Mission Street against the light during rush hour when I was sick. I've walked the overpass between the Pinole and Hilltop shopping centers. Which is technically legal, but no less stupid for all that -- two freeway on-ramps spin off that overpass, and neither has a light, and as a pedestrian you've got to attempt to cross them. And I'm sure I've done stupider things that I just can't remember right now. This would have been stupider than all of those things put together.
So I turned around, and walked back up the hill to Walnut Street so I could take the Walnut Street overpass over Lincoln Drive. Only way to get on this overpass for a pedestrian on that side of Lincoln is two blocks from the Evil Intersection of Doom, so that wasn't far out of my way. Only then it takes you about a mile in the wrong direction and dumps you down on another street going in a wrong direction and eventually you make a giant two-mile loop in order to get around one. damn. street.
See? Philadelphia can claim it all it wants, but it clearly doesn't love me for who I am.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-28 04:06 pm (UTC)Don't get me started on the insanity of this -- when I lived on the uberrich Main Line (in a tiny hobbit's cottage surrounded by McMansions and Olde Moneyed Estates), I had to walk a mile from where I lived to where I worked this summer. Easy, right? WRONG. NO SIDEWALK. ANYWHERE. Hardly any space between (the heavily-trafficked) road and fences/bushes/etc. Really, no possible route (let alone the most convenient one) was navigable by rational human beings. And forget my bike: that was just as life-threatening (and I am no Suicide!Sam).
I stopped walking when my housemates (both armed with cars) started working/school halfway into the summer -- mostly because they refused to let me risk my neck tripping like a shetland pony through razor weed and speedy cars. When they found out I'd been doing it in the rain, they literally thwacked me upside the head.
Re:
Date: 2004-01-29 09:10 am (UTC)I have yet to find a route between my house and the co-op that is navigable by rational human beings. I always end up having to do SOMETHING stupid, because I try a different route, but there's a bridge and giant park with no room to walk at all, and then the next day I try a different route but it turns out that it's all ye-olde-mansions with no sidewalks and big dogs, and so on.
I know I always sound so provincial when I say this, but I swear t'god, any property inside city limits in CA was required to have a sidewalk (unincorporated areas could do as they pleased). You could have the giant front lawn of doom with the mile-high bushes indicating that you were Special and Important and Very, Very Private, but there had to be a sidewalk outside that.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-28 05:08 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-01-29 09:04 am (UTC)Being a pedestrian should not be a circus trick: "now watch as MLE attempts to cross the street in Japan! be very quiet as she performs this death-defying feat!"
missing sidewalks
Date: 2004-01-29 12:57 pm (UTC)