The article “Nation of anarchic pedestrians” by Nick Clelland July 17th was thought-provoking because it is realistic. Every week morning, coming into Adderley Street at about 7: 25am the chaos is obvious. Pedestrians, who walk in the street, liberally ignore oncoming traffic, road regulations and pavements.
Anger is visible when hooting since they are unable to hear anything when wearing earphones. Listening to music on earphones while in a train or taxi maybe suitable, but on the street, earphones become a danger. Listeners remain in the music cocoon and often cannot hear oncoming vehicles.
On entering the shop where I buy my newspapers, I hear them shouting at the shopkeeper. This happens because they refuse to remove the earphones or reduce volume when requesting service.
In winter it is worse since most earphone listeners wear hoodies or ear-muffs making an approaching vehicle impossible to hear or see. The hoodie removes most peripheral view and this is obvious when observing pedestrian scatter in front of oncoming vehicles which has to hoot for clearance. Accidents could be avoided if pedestrians cross the streets swiftly or walk on the pavement. That pedestrians often challenge vehicles by walking deliberately slower in the face of oncoming traffic is mind boggling
I suspect that the reason why most pedestrian causalities are poor people as alluded to by Nick, is probably because they care less about personal safety compared to a wealthy person.
In the words of the wise “your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens. Nothing can stop the person with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the person with the wrong mental attitude.”
Cllr Yagyah Adams
Cape Muslim Congress