32 - Friday, November 9, 1990 - North Shore News

AUTOMOTIVES

Take a different -
approach to crossroads

INTERSECTIONS ARE really
wonderful places for people to
meet and make contact with each
other.

By Keith Morgan
Contributing Writer

That’s not a new idea, 1 know
— people meet head-on every day
at the crossroads and invariably a
‘*passionate’’ exchange follows.
But those metal- crunching en-
counters aren't the kind [ have in
mind when [ talk about healthy
human contact.

latersections, controfled and
uncontrolled, produce anxiety in
the timid and anger in the ag-
gressive driver. Some people fear
to go when they have the right of
way while others barge through
and ignore yellow and even red
lights.

It’s not really surprising though,
because these troublesome spots
present a complex challenge for
even the most alert drivers.

It’s easy to suffer from infor-
mation overload as traffic streams
in from all directions, pedestrians
step off sidewalks and lights flash
from yellow to red and back to
green.

I'd like to make a few sugges-
tions on how we might all take a
different approach to meeting at
the crossroads.

We could save ourselves a great
deal of heartache, injury and
depressing cash losses if we would
just take a mental step back.

Quit looking at intersections as
obstacles that stand between you
and your destination. See them
for what they really are: places
where you and your fellow drivers
can change direction in an orderly
fashion.

64 Intersections,
controlled and
uncontrolled, produce
anxiety in the timid
and anger in the
aggressive driver. Some
people fear to go when
they have the right of
way while others barge
through and ignore
yellow and even red
lights. 99

Share the road and GIVE way
rather than*'*BLOCK the way.
When somebody waves you
through, smile and give that kind
soul a wave.

Such behavior is infectious and
can only benefit all who use the
roads. If you don't believe me.
just think back to an occasion
when somebody let you into a
line-up.

Didn't you feel good? Con-
versely, when somebody does the
dirty to you you're less likely to
help somebady else out when the
opportunity presents itself a few
blocks later.

Today, as you tush off to work
you will be tempted to run a light.
Think again. It’s quite likely that
somebody approaching from your
right is in just as big a rush as you
.. and he may be anticipating the
green.

And then there are stop signs.

Those white lines are painted there
for a good reason. They stop you
a few vards back from the in-
tersection so that others can see
you.

Also, when you come ‘o a
complete stop people know you're
not going to pull out directly into
their path. Those travelling along
the main road are not mind
readers, so you make them very
jumpy when you roll over the
white line.

Coasting over those lines can
also lead to some awfu? pedestrian
casualties. There’s a tendency for
drivers not to look right but con-
centrate on the traffic from the
teft which means they dus't often
notice the pedestrian crossing
from the right...

Four-way stops and those un-
controlled, so-called courtesy cor-
ners should enable the milk of
human kindness 1o gush forth and
thus allow traffic to flow Freely.

The truth of the matter is that
people don't follow the simple
rules. They very often don’t give
way to the right and find, to their
cost, that rule is not strictly first
come, first served.

They argue until they're blue in
the face that they arrived at the
stop sign four centimetres ahead
of the guy on the right. The reali-
ty is that if cars collide in an in-
tersection they have both arrived
at APPROXIMATELY the same
time. And that’s all the law re-
quires to give the person on the
right of way.

Intersections pose a challenge to
us all, but from today the
challenge is to see how neighborly
you can be in your crossroad en-
counters.

Keith Morgan is the commuter
columnist with The Province
newspaper.

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