Dear Editor:
When I’m walking my daughter past Court Street, she knows that no matter how enthusiastically she runs ahead of me, that she had better stop or hear me scream at her to stop. Court Street has cars on it, and I never take that lightly.
On Saturday, fire trucks diverted my car from Washington to Hudson and Hudson was jammed, so I drove on Court Street. I looked left and right, and finding it clear, moved out. I was quite shaken to almost hit a jogger that never paused as he ran before me! Pedestrians cross Court Street, and I never take that lightly either. However, between how much one sticks out their car in order to see pedestrians, without cutting someone off who is right there, and how fast someone blithely runs along nearer the buildings, there was nearly a tragedy.
Just the day before, my husband was crossing Washington Street with the light and not a car about, when one came up from 2nd and turned just in front of him when he was a good eight feet or so into the crosswalk, at which point he was not looking behind him for danger.
We all need to remember the velocity does not constitute the right of way, and that the right of way does not constitute safety. I am sure that with the increase in Hoboken’s pedestrian and vehicle traffic, these incidents must be happening near constantly. What we need is to carry within ourselves a realization that if we don’t give serious consideration to the dangers, we could kill or be killed, and that’s a mother’s scream that no one wants to hear.
B. Haas