I don't drive.
Which means I"m a pedestrian.
I live near Ditmars/Steinway so often walk down Ditmars towards 31st Street for the subway, shopping etc.
As we all know, there are more people living in the area now, so more pedestrians, cyclists, cars. Which means more traffic...and cars having to yield to others.
I get that drivers are frustrated by the congestion. But I'd like to ask that drivers (ESPECIALLY those in huge SUVs!!) please keep in mind that we pedestrians are much more vulnerable. If you feel irritated and want to quickly beat that light, or quickly take that turn while hugging alongside the car in front of you (to be 'sneaky' in trying to beat the light).... please stop for a minute and consider that there may be a pedestrian in the CROSSWALK, that you can't see.
In the past year I've had a number of near-misses while I was IN the crosswalk and while I had the RIGHT OF WAY.
I notice many times that if a car is travelling STRAIGHT, and is about to come to a crosswalk, that they will typically easily see me, and they will yield. However, I've noticed many other times that when cars are making a TURN, they often will NOT yield to me and will come right at me. (One time I actually had to run BACKWARDS as some ridiculously huge SUV came right at me while he was making a turn! At least he was man enough to apologize to me though. He clearly wasn't paying attention.)
I've been in the crosswalk a number of times, where I had the WALK signal, and I had to put my hand out to a car that was turning to indicate 'um, you need to slow down'. It's really unbelievable to me...how many times I've almost been hit. Cars are making turns WAY too fast.
Now that Ditmars is becoming more congested, you must always assume there may be someone in the crosswalk as you are making a turn. Don't just try and plow through in order to beat the light.
Thank you!