I have a problem with the DOT. I think they do a good job, for the most part. State roads are well taken care of. Take a short ride over the border and I\u2019m sure you will agree. But, I think the proliferation of pedestrian crosswalk signals is a waste of time and money. I can see it, at busy, tricky intersections, but a lot of locations where they\u2019ve been adding the signals, at $50,000 a pop, and more, are unnecessary, and a little insulting as well. How stupid do they think we are that we need help crossing streets where all you need to do is look both ways? A skill that five-year-old kids master before starting kindergarten. I suspect it may not be the DOT\u2019s choice; it\u2019s probably some federal safety standard that must be met if they want to get their fair share of federal funds. Like a lot of Washington\u2019s programs, it\u2019s blackmail of the highest order.<\/p>\n
So no, I don\u2019t have an issue with the\u201d transportation\u201d component of their function. My issue starts just off the edge of the travel lane, the shoulder of the road, where pedestrians, bicycle riders, skateboarders and the like, wend their way. Oh sure, there\u2019s a bike lane here and there, a narrow space between a painted white line right next to the lane where 4,000-pound SUV\u2019s fly by as though racing in the Daytona 500. I\u2019d like to see a new state department established, the DOPT, Department of Pedestrian Transportation (meant to include pedestrians, bicycles, skateboarders, and every other form of non-motor vehicle transportation). The DOPT would have exclusive authority over the travel zone alongside the road. <\/p>\n
The first mission of the DOPT would be to clean up this travel space, to sweep off the sand and salt after a cruel winter, the debris that has fallen off commercial transporter\u2019s vehicles and the limbs and weeds that encroach over the pathway. Not everyone in the country moves around in a motor vehicle, a lot of people can\u2019t afford it and must travel on foot or under human power of some sort, to get to work and other places. Another whole bunch, do it for the pleasure and health benefit of powering themselves from one point to another. A clear path would be a good start. <\/p>\n
Then, the safety issues could be addressed, creating truly safe places to walk and bike, protected from the distracted drivers who are running us down at greater numbers every year. The money wasted on those unnecessary cross walk signals would go a long way toward solving the problem. A state department with a single focus on this component of transportation would be a worthy and much appreciated venture. We\u2019re a small portion of the population, but our numbers are growing as the benefits to good health (physical and mental) and a smaller carbon footprint are adopted by more and more joggers, walkers, peddlers & skateboarders. We spend millions on rail-trail projects that, while important, don\u2019t solve the problem for the great masses that don\u2019t have access to them and do their thing along the roads dominated by motor vehicles. I\u2019m spoiled; I grew up in a world where it was safe to get around under human power, on sidewalks along the roadway. We moved along on foot, on bicycles, pogo sticks, stilts and roller skates and we were safe. It would be nice to progress back to what once was. <\/p>\n