Just as (as with my blog describe) "one never knows what one may find" on this blog, neither doesn't one know what one may find when walking where I live (or anywhere similar, I'm imagining).
I've already described things like snow, ice and puddles in one of the "foundation" posts. I think I've mentioned things like lumpy strips of "grass and/or dirt" along, or instead, of sidewalks. I'm fairly certain I mentioned that what's in the "gutter section" of the street (if one would even call the edge of the street where there really isn't a "standard curb" along the whole thing, "gutter") - which may be include tiny stones, bits of gravel, bits of "miscellaneous natural debris", with or without any puddle and/or snow/ice factor.
The point is that while standing at the edge of the sidewalk and/or side of the road and waiting for the right time to cross isn't a big deal for anyone without something like "knee issues", getting from the sidewalk (or wherever/whatever sort of serves as one) into the street (in order to cross) can be a bigger deal.
It's better in some places than others. Here's where no, big, "standard" (city-like) curbs can be an advantage in some ways. If the strip of "grass/dirt" doesn't involve (essentially) climbing down what feels, to the "knee-issue person" like a big incline, it can be great that isn't a big curb to deal with (although big curbs often do come with "little ramps" for people who need them and can use them). With some types of knee issues (or a combination of them), sometimes walking down even a slight incline can be worse than, say, stepping off even a steep curb or step "sideways" (and in a way that doesn't aggravate the front of the knee - that is if the knee if even capable of bearing "stepping-down" weight on it at all).
Depending on what, and how bad, the knee-issue is (and whether it's in one or both knees); getting from where one is walking (sidewalk or some version of one) down into "the gutter" can take some paying attention - whether that's sizing up the latest "conditions" at any one place, or just having "a system" for dealing with one or another crossing location.
My own knee/knees issue has nothing to do with arthritis or having any other kind of joint/mobility issue before seriously injuring one leg in/around the knee area; taking three years to work on getting it back to "good as new", almost getting there, and then injuring the previously injured other knee, and having to "work on" both of them between two years ago and this recent, past, Fall/Winter; in order to get them both to where they mostly seemed "good as new" (except, essentially, for being out-of-shape when it came to walking long distances and/or supporting weight that was "x amount" over and above my own weight. This has meant that, depending on "where I was" with regard to either of the knees/legs having any issues with walking surface, curbs, etc.; I've been dealing with a "foot-by-foot" (or "yard- by-yard") ever-changing surface/circumstance with regard to where I needed to walk (or cross), complicated by an ever-changing set of "circumstances" with each knee area, itself. In other words, it has required a couple/few different kinds of "paying attention", "planning" (sometimes, "step-by-step" planning, sometimes "bigger" planning), and different needs for, and degrees of, concentrating on just getting from one place to the other.
On the roads/times when there is less traffic, crossing the street has just been a matter of taking my time about doing so, and keeping in mind (at times) that I needed to be good and sure there would be no pressure to feel like I had to hurry out the way of any cars.
Before the leg injuries, but also now that they're both (knock-on-wood) pretty much back to "good-as-new", there was no issue with getting from any sidewalk/walking area into "the gutter" in order to cross. After, however, there was (again, depending on where and when it was).
In one of the "foundation" posts I mentioned Street D (my own, a quiet one that I don't even count), Street C (a more rural and more challenging one for a combination of reasons, but one that doesn't have curbs at all), and Street B (a bigger, busier, "more main", one than the actual "main drag" (Street A). Street B has what I think of a "God-knows-what when it comes to where sidewalk, or walking area, meet the road". It does have some curbs of varying heights. Street B is at the end of another, fairly busy sometimes, street that empties out onto Street B. Other than that, the particular stretch of Street B that I walk on has no busy intersections or sets of lights.
Before the first leg injury; and whether or not I was on Street B or Street, I pretty much didn't want any cars to stop to let me cross; mainly because the traffic such that it's either light (and fairly fast-moving), somewhat heavier (particularly on Street A) but still fairly fast-moving, stop-and-go in some areas (n which case, crossing can both be easier and/or require more concentration, depending...), or so light that cars may tend more to go faster than usual.
For any or all of those reasons, I pretty much have never wanted cars stopping to let me cross the street because I can either wait it out (I don't mind), find a better place to cross, and be better able to concentrate more on doing whatever it is that will keep me safer but also not involve stopping a whole line of cars just to let me cross. It's not the city. It's different.
Before the leg injuries I'd just kind of step back from the street, try to make kind of a "big and obvious deal" that I had no wish/plans to cross the street, watch what was going on with the cars/traffic, and quickly get myself from the sidewalk/walking area into the street as I crossed quickly.
(By the way, I take back what i said in the previous post about this one being "relatively brief".)
Anyway....
Both before and after the leg injuries, I haven't wanted or needed any cars to stop and let me cross; and I just described my way of trying to prevent that from happening. of course, people have been conditioned to think in terms of "pedestrians have the right of way". So, some people - city or suburbs - try to do what they think is the right thing. That's been why I have to step back from the "curb"/"gutter" and try to make it obvious that I'm "not crossing". Even with that, however, there have occasionally been drivers who stop, beep their horns (as if I've been waiting so long that I've become bored, started day-dreaming, and forgotten to watch for any "kind souls" who have stopped to let me cross). I know they mean well (oh, the old, "meaning well" thing) , but it really drives me nuts when someone does that because I'm not now, and never have been, the kind of person who doesn't stay complete on top of what I'm doing at any given time - particularly when it comes to crossing the street.
Those few well-meaning but incorrectly mind-reading followers of "general rules of the road" aside), most of the time the thing about not making a big deal about crossing has worked well for me. All I've had to do is stay away from the edge of the road, make it clear that I'm not looking both ways and at the cars (or across the street), and that's been it. It hasn't been so easy since the leg/knee injuries, however, because it hasn't been so easy to get from sidewalk/walking area down into the "gutter" without some care and planning. This means that there has pretty much been no staying on the walking area and making that big deal about not crossing; keeping an eye on the traffic situation, and then just hopping/zipping down into the lower-level street/"gutter" and crossing.
With that extra and care, thinking, and planning having become issues (at least for awhile), what it has meant has been introducing the factor of staying in the walking area/sidewalk long enough until there were truly no cars anywhere to be seen/expected and then taking a little extra time to get into the gutter/street before REALLY paying attention to any cars that may have shown up in the meantime. What it has also meant, however, has been that once I've been "in the gutter" it's generally pretty hard to pretend that I'm not even thinking about crossing the street. Also, one one is actually in the street (and particularly n some areas of the route), one is at higher risk of being hit by a car.
On Street A, even where there is "standard curb" (even a "real-life, standard, designated, crossing place) there is sometimes a thin layer of sand in areas. There may or may not varying amounts of other stuff (bits of gravel, small stones, etc.); but even with all the "polish" and "wonderful-ness" of what is very much like a "real" city-type sidewalk and crossing area; making that move from sidewalk down into the street is more complicated for the person with "knee issues" (particularly when those issues may be related to stability for one reason or another).
That "big and official" curb associated with that "real" sidewalk and crossing area means having that more clearly delineated "line" between sidewalk and actual street; and as I said earlier, sometimes getting down from a curb works better for the knee-/knees-issues person than walking down even a slight incline ever would/could.
Things will be different for me now that a) I've gotten to where the injuries feel "good as new" but also as I've gotten past a Winter when walking just wasn't possible at all and during which I just became un-used to doing a walk that long (and of that type) at all; but since the first leg injury at the beginning of 2010, I've most often had to avoid using that designated crossing area completely.
What makes it worse is that there's one side that involves a little hill but not as much traffic. There's another side that involves the most traffic, at the bottom of a hill, and sometimes "coming from all directions" and at varying speeds. What I've always done is walk to where the cars are only going in the usual two directions, where there's a driveway/parking lot that doesn't involve anything but a "smooth transition" into the street, and where I can do my "pretend-I'm-not-crossing" thing when necessary. Also, the street is narrowed away from the intersection and lights, which, of course, means spending less time in the street at all. There's also "the hope" of so little traffic that traffic is not an issue AND the hope that the stop-and-go traffic at the lights can (if one is careful to watch) mean being able to cross more easily. How safe this approach is depends on the kind of traffic there is. In general, that hill I mentioned elsewhere, combined with being able to see quite far down Street A in the other direction, make this "approach" not as hazardous as it might otherwise seem.
No comments:
Post a Comment