Breaking the Law to Mail a Letter, or, Being a Pedestrian in America and Abroad

SAINT PAUL, MN 55111–3032 (map)

There was a catch. This post office branch is located at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport (MSP). The thought of 10 miles of highway driving and dealing with airport parking seemed more trouble than it was worth. So I grabbed a book and my Metropass, hopped on a bus to Downtown, and caught the Blue Line to the airport. Upon arriving at Terminal 1 Lindbergh Station (map), I re-checked the directions; according to Google Maps, it would be an easy 6-minute walk to the post office. I headed out the door and could instantly see the USPS eagle logo across the way.

 

 The Google Map directions proved to be inaccurate, so I improvised, making my way past a low building that led to the a wide stretch of pavement. This was the exit for the airport’s main parking garage. I was encouraged by the clearly marked crosswalk painted on the ground. Few cars were exiting the gates, so I easily made it across. At the end of the crosswalk I reached a two-lane road with cars whipping by at near-highway speed. There was no crosswalk, no bridge, and no discernible option for getting to the post office by foot.

 One thing was clear: a sign on the edge of the road that read: “No Pedestrian Crossing per order of Airport Police” (or something to this effect. I didn’t take a picture of it for fear of being arrested. I’m a bit of a coward in this regard. In the post-9-11 world, I’m terrified of taking photographs of airports, police officers, oil tankers, or anything that could conceivably be construed as an act of pre-terrorism. I recall an Australian tourist who told me that his camera was confiscated by police in New York City for taking photographs of the George Washington Bridge).

I’m a law-abiding man, but I’m also a stubborn man of principle, especially when the principal in question is my right to move from Point A to Point B using my feet. Here I was, standing a stone’s throw away from the post office, and there was no safe or legal way to get there. I had traveled 10 miles from my apartment, a 50-minute trip via public transportation. I wasn’t about to turn back because of a mere 75 feet deemed uncrossable by airport police. To avoid breaking the law I suppose I could have hired a taxi, but I doubt they would have taken such a cheap fare. I elected to break the law, of course.

After a few moments, a gap in the traffic appeared and I sprinted across the road. When I reached the post office I  felt covered by a veil of suspicion, as if my lawless pedestrian ways would be detected by the car-driving staff and customers. After mailing the letter I went back outside and re-crossed the road, breaking the law for a second time.

It is frustrating that the only post office open on Saturday afternoon in the Twin Cities is inaccessible to people without cars. It is even more frustrating knowing that it would be accessible were it not for a stretch of just 75 feet. This “transit gap” is one of the most egregious I’ve ever encountered.

The issue of pedestrian safety and the “right to walk” has been gaining attention over the years. Stories like mine are an annoyance to people who enjoy walking and have a preference for public transportation. However, such stories can become a matter of life and death for low-income people who cannot afford a car and must live car-free in a car-oriented world. In an infamous case, a mother was convicted of vehicular homicide for “letting” her 4-year-old son get killed by a drunk driver:

“A 30-year-old woman in Marietta, Georgia was convicted of vehicular homicide this week – and she wasn’t even driving a car. The woman was crossing the street with her three children when a driver, who had been drinking, hit and killed her four-year-old. The driver, Jerry Guy, was initially charged with “hit and run, first degree homicide by vehicle and cruelty to children,” Elise Hitchcock of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. “Charges were later dropped to just the hit and run charge.’” Source:  Georgia Mom Convicted of Vehicular Homicide For Crossing Street With Kids, Streetsblog USA, July 14, 2011

The United States is a strange place.

We have so many safety rules and regulations, yet we seem intent on making walking as difficult and as dangerous as possible. Much of the blame obviously lies at the feet (or tires) of our car culture. But some blame should be attributed to our inability to accept low-tech, provisional solutions. For example, in a developing country, the solution to crossing a small creek would be to lay a piece of scrap wood across the water. In the United States we would have committee meetings, environment impact studies, consultation with ADA standards, and ultimately the project would be deemed unfeasible. All this, when a single piece of wood can do the trick.

Granted, this is a bit of a straw man, but I believe there is some truth in it. Furthermore, I have seen examples of makeshift pedestrian solutions that would never be found in today’s United States.

HANOI, VIETNAM

Vietnam is famous for its dense motorbike traffic. Many pedestrian crossings lack stop lights, and people wade across multiple lanes of traffic, comfortable in the knowledge that the drivers are aware of them and are expecting them to cross. During my visit to Hanoi I was initially terrified of crossing the street, but I soon got the hang of it and found it to be fun. In the following example, the traffic is lighter than usual, but it’s easy to focus on the single pedestrian as she calmly navigates within feet of the moving vehicles.

I don’t advocate Vietnamese traffic patterns – in fact, I anticipate they will pose a major challenge for the country as motorbikes are replaced with automobiles – however, I include this to illustrate that the behavior of vehicles towards pedestrians is markedly different in Vietnam compared with the United States. When I was at the airport in Minneapolis-St. Paul, crossing that 75-foot road was a somewhat reckless act because the cars were not expecting me. In Vietnam, crossing the road would have been far easier.