My walk to work
On my way to work this morning I saw this in the Calgary Sun box.
Michael Platt. I know that name. He's a man who has a platform to speak about anything that relates to the city, as a representative of the people of Calgary.
I'll read the story when I get to work.
Then I walked by this intersection.
It's the intersection where my love was killed 6 years ago on the coldest morning of the year. -40 or so. It's only -2 this morning, so my walk should be quite nice.
The walk is nice, but my mind is racing.
I wonder if Michael Platt drives to work and parks. I wonder if he lives in the suburbs and takes a highway everyday - twice a day. I wonder how our lives are different and how they are similar.
I walk or bike or bus or car2go or drive my own car to work. I can choose. I live in the inner city. If it's rush hour I avoid driving at all costs, due to congestion, and because I live near Deerfoot, the most used highway of all.
When Ryan was walking to work that morning, we didn't have a car, and he had just missed the bus. It was 6:59 am. I told him before kissing his warm face and telling him I loved him that we'd get a car soon, next month. Minutes later he was hit. I saw traffic backed up on my street and wondered what was happening. I turned on the radio and the news said a woman had been hit.
They were wrong.
Nowadays, I pick up the paper some mornings and see pedestrians have been hit, some killed, and there's an awful lot of blame. On the pedestrian, on the driver. The comments section is sickening.
I wasn't there that morning. I don't know how it happened, although I can imagine. I've tried. What it comes down to is that we are human beings; that's how it happens. We step out distracted, not always looking. We check our phone for a second while driving. We don't always clear our windshield as thoroughly as we could. It simply happens. In inclement weather, it happens more often.
As a resident of this city I love, and a frequent pedestrian, I welcome this new initiative.
I'd like to know how many other people welcome the forward-thinking plan to make the streets safer for those of us that live right in the thick of it, while the rush hour cars race home past us, we are already home.
Michael Platt. I know that name. He's a man who has a platform to speak about anything that relates to the city, as a representative of the people of Calgary.
I'll read the story when I get to work.
Then I walked by this intersection.
It's the intersection where my love was killed 6 years ago on the coldest morning of the year. -40 or so. It's only -2 this morning, so my walk should be quite nice.
The walk is nice, but my mind is racing.
I wonder if Michael Platt drives to work and parks. I wonder if he lives in the suburbs and takes a highway everyday - twice a day. I wonder how our lives are different and how they are similar.
I walk or bike or bus or car2go or drive my own car to work. I can choose. I live in the inner city. If it's rush hour I avoid driving at all costs, due to congestion, and because I live near Deerfoot, the most used highway of all.
When Ryan was walking to work that morning, we didn't have a car, and he had just missed the bus. It was 6:59 am. I told him before kissing his warm face and telling him I loved him that we'd get a car soon, next month. Minutes later he was hit. I saw traffic backed up on my street and wondered what was happening. I turned on the radio and the news said a woman had been hit.
They were wrong.
Nowadays, I pick up the paper some mornings and see pedestrians have been hit, some killed, and there's an awful lot of blame. On the pedestrian, on the driver. The comments section is sickening.
I wasn't there that morning. I don't know how it happened, although I can imagine. I've tried. What it comes down to is that we are human beings; that's how it happens. We step out distracted, not always looking. We check our phone for a second while driving. We don't always clear our windshield as thoroughly as we could. It simply happens. In inclement weather, it happens more often.
As a resident of this city I love, and a frequent pedestrian, I welcome this new initiative.
I'd like to know how many other people welcome the forward-thinking plan to make the streets safer for those of us that live right in the thick of it, while the rush hour cars race home past us, we are already home.
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