End right of way for pedestrians

By Paula Carnes, Las Vegas

Wednesday, March 12, 2014 | 2:01 a.m.

I grew up living on a busy two-lane highway. The speed limit was 55 mph. My mom and dad told me never to cross the road in the dark. I was to wait until I could see no cars coming and to wear white at night if I had to walk along the road. I think we would call this walking defensively today.

Pedestrian crosswalks are one of the stupider inventions of all time. I have seen hundreds of pedestrians walking blindly into a crosswalk without looking at all. At night, most of them are wearing dark clothing.

They assume a driver going 45 mph can see them in the dark on a boulevard with shrubbery hanging into the street. I guess they think the white crosswalk lines or the flashing light (again, often behind shrubbery) makes them visible like glow-in-the-dark ghosts.

How to fix this? Remove the law that says pedestrians have the right of way. The only place to allow them right of way would be at red-light intersections. Even then, the walker needs to stop and look.

Sometimes what is “legal” can kill you.