BRATTLEBORO-I have driven down Canal Street in Brattleboro and had a bicycle come flying by on the right-hand side as I was about to turn onto Oak Street. I'm just supposed to see them when they come out of nowhere.
Or I go past the town garage and someone doesn't stop and rolls into the intersection from Elm Street. I have to slam on my brakes so hard that everything starts sliding to the floor, because they decided to pull right out in front of me.
Or at the light by the Market 32 intersection, I'm stopped at the red light and a bicycle goes flying by on my right through the intersection.
The same with Main Street and other places. We are even teaching our children to weave all over the road on scooters, and if you come to an intersection, they whizz right by on the right, too. I was raised to walk on the left side of the road facing traffic if there was no sidewalk.
And then people jaywalk.
I understand that we are to share the road, but someone is going to get hurt if we aren't all aware of our surroundings.
They used to teach the rules to all people when you had to get a sticker for your bicycle, like a registration. But I guess those days are gone.
A long time ago, I heard a joke about a police officer who pulled over a driver who had slowed down but did not stop at a stop sign. The officer asked him if he knew why he stopped him.
The driver said, "No."
The officer told him he didn't stop at the sign. The driver said, "But I slowed down."
The officer asked the driver to get out of the car. He started to hit him with his stick.
The man said, "Stop! Stop!"
And the police officer said, "Do you want me to stop or slow down?"
Who would have thought that joke would ring true today?
Linda Morse
Brattleboro
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