The tone of Rick Owen's Nov. 16 letter suggests that he had a near miss with a pedestrian, and in order to relieve his guilt he is downloading all of the responsibility onto the pedestrian.
Pedestrian safety is not as simple as he states, and the cellphone distraction scenario of the "hypnotized zombie" applies for drivers and pedestrians. I agree with Rick that one should never march out into traffic, even with a marked crosswalk – in fact, I myself have adopted the practice of waving at the oncoming traffic every time I cross the street, as if I were waving to a friend. This action usually gets a wave back and on several occasions I have received a friendly greeting from the driver.
Rick has also failed to acknowledge that children are also pedestrians, and society, which includes Rick, does have a responsibility for keeping them safe. I would suggest that Rick follow my lead and promote the friendly pedestrian/friendly driver crosswalk approach, so that we may all avoid being "pasted by a bus".
Ken Johnson, Edmonton
