I Don’t Understand American Pedestrians

When I was little in Nigeria and my parents gave me the lesson about how to cross the road, it seemed like the lesson wouldn’t end. Look left, look right, then look left again, then look right and left — and then again. When I crossed with my parents – my mom especially – she would clutch my wrist as if I was at flight risk and she didn’t want me to escape. And even with all the security measures, I wasn’t even allowed to cross the road alone, so really, the lessons were pointless.

In America, however, things are different. There is actually some order to crossing roads here and walking on the streets. There are street lights, pedestrian crossing paths, crossing lights, and those silver buttons you press when you want the crossing light to change. I remember when I was in driving school and we were taught that once a pedestrian has stepped his/her foot onto the road, he/she has the right of way and the motorists have to bow down stop for the pedestrian. The problem with this is that pedestrians just literally enter the road without looking, chatting on the cell phones and cat-walking to the other end of the road. Are they trying to prove that there is indeed a God (by meeting Him early)?

In Nigeria, the motorists are the kings of the road – not that I’m condoning this way of life. Pedestrians literally run for life when cars are passing. I cannot count how many times my daddy has rolled down his window to shout, “Akuya!” (sheep in Hausa) when someone crosses the road at the wrong time. And my mom, on the other hand, I’ll leave that alone for now.

Of course, I don’t expect to run the road and call people akuya, but my mom also did tell me that when I’m driving, I have to drive for everyone else. In other words, just because I’m alert and oriented while driving doesn’t mean that everyone else is. Thanks to my mom, I have a real phobia of walking on the road and I always assume that all motorists are either drunk, distracted, depressed, or sleepy.

Back to my point of American pedestrians, I never, ever understand why people just enter the road without looking. I have not stopped being amazed at how they do it. People just walk into the road on their phones and they are not apologetic, nor are they in a hurry to get out of your way. And I wonder, how do they know that the driver is mentally stable? And are they not afraid of getting hurt? The argument is that even if they get hurt, the driver will be in jail. Maybe so, but what if you’re dead? Or what if you suffer a permanent kind of hurt? Fear no dey catch una?

Like my mommy would say, tufia kwa unu! [Tufia kwa for you people]

P.S. Thank you sooooo much for all the birthday love. I haven’t replied the comments yet, but I will. Thank you!!!