Drivers should yield to pedestrians, its the law
I am writing in regard to an incident I observed while visiting Greensboro on Jan. 9 at the intersection of Fordham Boulevard and Wendover Avenue.
While a man was trying to cross Wendover (when the pedestrian traffic signal indicated he could), I saw him narrowly avoid getting hit no fewer than three times by vehicles making a right turn. Each time a car nearly plowed into him, the man looked at the driver and pointed to the traffic signal.
I would like to remind these careless "vehicle operators" of N.C. General Statutes 20-155c and 20-158(b)(2)b-d as well as Chapter 4 of the "N.C. Driver's Handbook" under the subheading "Basic Driving Skills and Rules, Part 2." It might also be helpful to review NCGS 20-16 and Chapter 3 of the "Driver’s Handbook." They can access this information easily via the Web at www.ncga.state.nc.us and www.ncdot.org.
"Yield to the pedestrian," should be one of the many pearls one takes away from a basic driver's education course in high school. Memorize it!
I was both indignant and disheartened to find that Greensboro is still the pedestrian-unfriendly city that it was during my days at UNCG. Some things never change.
Brian Holcomb
Weirton, W.Va.
Comments (4)
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Many drivers in the triad have a problem yielding to anyone for any reason, Mr. Holcomb. I have also almost been hit by drivers who completely ignore the pedestrian right-of-way laws. We have a problem with drivers understanding the yield and merge laws in general. As an example, I must enter onto Wendover going West from the Holden Rd. ramp each morning and find that many drivers refuse to allow cars to merge into the far left lane, even when they can easily and safely do so. I have actually seen drivers deliberately speed up to prevent a merging vehicle from getting into the traffic flow. Some drivers are on the phone and completely oblivious to traffic rules, others just seem to be reckless.
Posted on January 15, 2008 8:00 AM
Brian,
You need to take this up with "Dan" our resident narcissist and Spartan. He may have some stories of his UNCG days.
Posted on January 15, 2008 10:15 AM
Sadly Greensboro is rated as one of the most dangerous cities in the nation per capita for pedestrians due largely to the fact that our police department is understaffed by 25% and simply doesn't have manpower enough to reign in unsafe drivers.
Add "right turn on red" and matters simply get worse.
Greensboro is currently more dangerous and more violent than New York City and NOTHING is being done to change it.
Posted on January 15, 2008 11:10 AM
all of the drivers who are disrespectful are transplants from other states - roger bennet told me so.
Posted on January 15, 2008 5:58 PM