Copyright © 2012 by Ralph Couey
There was a
time in America when there were no traffic laws, mainly because encountering a
fellow traveler in the great trackless wilderness was actually an event of some
note. As time went on, the population,
and its density, increased. Roads
evolved from forest trails to dirt paths and from there to gravel, brick, and
stone. Eventually the advent of the
motor vehicle made necessary the paving of roads. To avoid collisions, carelessness, and
needless bloodshed, laws were enacted governing our behaviors on the roads and
highways. We sometimes chafe over the
restrictions of speed limits and ill-timed traffic signals, but by and large we
recognize that those laws are there to keep us safe, and so we heed them.
Unfortunately,
there are areas where people seem to think traffic laws don’t exist. One of those areas is the parking lot.
American
frontiersman used to say “There ain’t no law west of St. Louie, and there ain’t
no God west of Ft. Smith.” It was a
fairly accurate statement describing the relatively lawless nature of the west
in those years. We have come far since
those days, but there are times when the “frontier” of the mall parking lot is
as dangerous a place as Allen Street was in Old Tombstone, Arizona.
Parking lots are areas of high density,
both vehicles and people. And yet there
are those of us who drive through them as if they were the only ones within
miles. We’ve all seen the daredevil who
cuts perpendicularly across the parking lanes, and those who roar through those
lots at dangerous speeds. It doesn’t
help that parking lots are generally considered private property and therefore
not the purview of the local gendarmerie.
Lots have rules, but the only ones around to enforce them are the Mall
Cops, and I’ve never seen them give anyone a ticket. Not that such a ticket would be taken
seriously. I’ve never seen a galleria
traffic court. But the thing that most
puzzles me are the actions of pedestrians.
No sane person would dare step off a
curb directly into the path of an approaching vehicle. Yet those same people think nothing of
purposefully walking behind a car backing out of a parking space. Let’s be reasonable here. When a driver is backing out, their vision is
extremely limited. There are vehicles
parked on either side. And these days,
more than likely those vehicles are high-sided, such as trucks, SUVs, and
minivans. The driver can’t see either
left or right until the car gets far enough out that he or she can see an
approaching pedestrian. We all know this
basic fact when we’re behind the wheel.
But put us on our feet, and we suddenly forget.
The same thing applies when a person
gets out of their vehicle and begins walking towards the mall. We all know what happens to children who pop
out from in between parked cars into the street to chase a ball. Why we don’t apply that same common-sense
knowledge to ourselves is something of a mystery. Even careful drivers who navigate the parking
rows at sane speeds of 10 mph or less can be surprised when a pedestrian walks
out from between a pair of Cadillac Escalades without looking.
As drivers, we must be alert to parked
cars about to pull out. There is a
reason why all manufacturers put those backup lights on their vehicles. As we approach a car set to back out,
remember that they probably can’t see us approaching and despite the
well-understood rules about right-of-way, it might behoove us to either stop,
swing wide, or at least give them a courtesy toot of the horn just to let them
know we’re there.
Mariners know well that there are one
set of “rules of the road” for navigating at sea and a completely different set
for traversing inland waterways, such as rivers, bays, and harbors. What we as both drivers and pedestrians must
recognize is that navigating a parking lot is a completely different
proposition than a city street or state highway. In a parking lot, both pedestrians and
vehicles share the same patch of asphalt.
Both parties must realize the limitations of the other and act with
extreme care and patience.
That way, we all get home safely.
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