Blog Staff Two: What a nice complement to the other suggestion of "pay attention bicyclers" from Elsbeth. I think there is a general, cultural desire that everyone else pay more attention. This ethos probably applies similarly to grocery checkout lines, car-driving, staff meetings, date-nights and poker. I'm guessing it's probably psychological entropy why we don't just all pay lots of attention. Personally, I have a very distinct quota of attention I can spend. So, my question is: what should I spend it on? I'm thinking that when I walk around, I want that to be as unstructured and uncontrolled as possible; it's kind of my resting time, when I don't have to pay so much attention. If I can zone out, then when I arrive where I'm going, I'm generally fresher!
Blog Staff Four: Pedestrians do need to pay attention and take some personal responsibility for their own safety. If you are going to text and walk, abruptly change direction, or look down when entering an intersection, you are going to get hurt. Maybe it won't even be a bicycle or a vehicle that hits you, but another person. The injury probably won't be as serious, but you could still hurt the other person or cause them to drop and break personal belongings. EVERYONE needs to be more aware and more responsible for their actions, not just drivers, cyclists, and boarders.
Blog Staff Five: Why don't we talk more often. I love to vocalize on my bicycle and inform pedestrians of my whereabouts. I usually employ various dialects to keep people on their toes, my latest being a Canadian hockey player. The system works pretty well, but what happens when communication break down due to the headphone barrier. I am a big fan of the one headphone rule when walking on campus. If you remove a headphone you can still listen to the tunes, but you also hear the world around you. Paying attention doesn't mean being a Zen Master; it just requires an ability to be mindful and present when walking. Don't get me wrong, I love to space out and get lost in architecture, the blue sky, or a sweet bike, but we must be able to hear/see/feel an imminent situation.
Blog Staff Six: I completely agree. Pedestrians should definitely be paying more attention, especially on campus. I have witnessed many an accident (bicycle related) on campus, and nearly all of them were caused by pedestrians strolling into the bike lane, headphones audibly blasting music. Many of these accidents occurred when pedestrians were exiting a bus and groups of sometimes fifteen pedestrians suddenly mobbed into the bike lane with no warning without even checking for an en route cyclist. I understand...I've taken the bus; you're late to class and you run off the bus and sometimes end up in the bike lane for a few seconds before continuing into the pedestrian lane. But the problem is when a large amount of pedestrians come to a stand-still in the wrong lane, and even sometimes continue to class in that lane. I'm not sure why this is such a frequent occurrence, as there are little pictures painted onto the lanes to direct pedestrians into the correct one...maybe if they spent less time drawing smiley-faces on the little walking people and more time actually commuting in the designated lane, a lot less people would be getting into devastating, spandex-clad cycling accidents.
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