Colorado, from a New Yorker's point of view

First my disclaimer: I don’t advocate driving drunk.  If you are drunk you should not be behind the wheel.  This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be able to drink and drive.   If it is your first beer of the evening you should be allowed to consume it in the vehicle.  At the least your passengers should be allowed to drink.  If the driver is sober, who cares what the passengers do?  The driver is responsible for them.  If they distract the driver it is the driver’s problem.  Control you passengers.

That’s my tirade on drunk driving.  Tonight I was with someone.  We had a small glass of wine  at her house, then just before we get ready to leave she pours another glass of wine.  She then asks if I want to take it with me.  “Sure, I’m not driving” I think.  As I nod in agreement I ask if we are going to put the wine in plastic cup, a Gatorade bottle, a flask or something.

Nope, we take the wine with us in our glasses.  As we drive down the street, drinking boxed Franzia (that’s another story) she tells me about how she hit a pedestrian.  Hit as in, smasher her car into a jaywalker.  Hit, as in bounced a pedestrian off her windshield, then off the roof and onto the road.

At least she didn’t kill a passenger in her car.  That would have made me more nervous.

Speaking of jaywalkers.  People in Denver are very respectful of traffic signals.  If the light says don’t walk, they stay put.  Whereas as a New Yorker I always look both ways, even down a one way.  If nothing is coming I go.  Very simple.  No traffic, I walk.  If traffic is only going in one direction, I will walk half-way out into the intersection.   It saves time, it keeps the flow of people and cars moving.

The majority of people in Denver don’t do that.  If I walk upon an intersection with a bunch of people waiting for the “walk signal” I have to weave in and out and occasionally push someone until I get to the front.  When I get to the front I look left, then right and if nothing is coming I walk.  Occasionally someone will follow my lead.  I’ll be half-way through an intersection and I’ll notice that one or two other people are proceeding cautiously behind me.

There are some other people like me.  I assume those are fellow NY transplants.  At least Denver is not as bad as California.  You can set foot in the intersection without people stopping for you.  I made that mistake in So Cal once.  I took one step into an intersection, and immediately cars on both sides came to a screeching halt.  The loud brake noise captured everybody’s attention.  I soon had a whole block of pedestrians and drivers staring at me with the expression of “WTF are you doing?  Jackass, why are you in the intersection?”

Now when I am at an intersection in California I stand backwards.  I lift one leg and slowly and deliberately I take a step backwards into the intersection.  Drivers seem to love it.