It’s been pointed out many times that the Washington Ave. transit mall is over-regulated and most people ignore the signals. My schedule happens to take me down and across the transit mall a couple times a week on foot, and while it’s true that most people ignore them, I still too often see timid pedestrians staring wanly up at the Red Hand.
But I witnessed a heartening event there the other day. This person was walking briskly toward the street, but when he looked up to check that the way was clear, he spotted those two Cycle-mounted Justice Enforcers on the other side.
As he stopped in his tracks, this song played. He glanced nervously behind him as two other people approached the crosswalk. They stood there staring at the Justice Enforcers for a few seconds, and vice versa. Then, slowly at first, they began to cross in defiance of the Red Hand.
Suddenly, it didn’t matter at all. The Justice Enforcers turned a blind eye as they crossed the empty street with no approaching traffic as far as the eye could see, in a victory for common sense over traffic engineering frippery.
