Each day I walk through dozens of intersections during my dog walks and each day I am amazed at how close people come to hitting me and the dog I am walking or a pedestrian in front of me. The worst happened last week when a truck actually drove through the crosswalk at me to keep me from walking, the entire time yelling at me. I had started to step off the curb with the dog I was walking, the crosswalk sign had just started to flash with a count down starting at 10. If I have a dog with me, I will walk across the crosswalk with a flashing hand if it has just started flashing on a smaller street, once the countdown is past 7 I wait on the curb. On wider streets, I don't cross once the countdown has started. The main thing the man was yelling was that I was in the wrong and crossing the street illegally. Knowing that I am not always right, I wanted to look up the law to find out if in fact I was breaking it. As it turns out, I am not! The law in all cases, regardless if the crosswalk sign says walk or do not walk, the pedestrian in the crosswalk has the right of way. I am not suggesting that pedestrians can walk where ever and whenever they like, but I am saying that cars are much bigger and more powerful than people or dogs and if you are behind the wheel, you should think about this before racing into an intersection or simply not looking both ways before proceeding ahead. For pedestrians, make sure to look both ways and don't walk if the sign say not to, we are no match for a car and the risk is never worth it, especially if you have a dog with you.
