Editor:
Despite the city’s green pretensions over the years, Santa Monica has become an increasingly hostile and dangerous environment for pedestrians.
When I moved to Santa Monica almost 30 years ago, hardly any of the signals required the push of a button to catch a walk sign; now almost all do, making it increasingly difficult for those of us who use walking as our main form of transportation to get around.
The question I’ve been asking for almost as long as I’ve lived here is: Why do pedestrians have to push a button? How is this not a form of discrimination? Surprisingly, Los Angeles is actually better in this respect then we are!
Surprise me! Do something!
Steve Keats
Santa Monica
Congratulations, your life is so awesome there is nothing else to complain about but pushing a button occasionally.
As a frequent pedestrian _and_ driver in Santa Monica, I hope the city puts buttons at EVERY crosswalk. People wander out into crosswalks mesmerized by their phones, walk against the light when DON’T-WALK is counting down, dart into crosswalks from still poses that telegraph no intent, and run out into the crosswalk from behind parked vehicles or buildings. Of course they always sneer when I look surprised and frustrated. Yes, of course pedestrians have the right-of-way, but please don’t play blind chicken with my 2-ton truck. I might go to jail, but you’ll be dead — forever denied the pleasure of my incarceration.