Stamford By Foot

To Stop or not to Stop

That is the dilemma

As I walk around Stamford, I see many of my fellow travelers not stopping at stop signs or right turn on red.  The question is should they. Let’s face it many times there is no one coming when you approach a red light or stop sign. So why not just go. After all, if I stop, I will lose time and there is the additional energy needed to accelerate from a complete stop.

Let us look at the other side of to Stop or not to stop.  It is the law.  We do need some rules when we are driving, or it would be utter chaos. One could argue we have chaos already. When I watch people make right turns from the left lane, I would say we are heading in that direction. I could list more.

Now from my point of view as a walker.  It is dangerous for us. The main problem is that when a car traveler is looking to see if they can go, they are not looking for pedestrians. One of the scariest things for me is crossing in front of a driver who wants to make a right turn on red. Very rarely do they look to the right. The same goes for not stopping at the stop sign. The drivers are not looking for pedestrians they are looking to see if they can avoid stopping and not hitting other cars.

Now I also could plead guilty to not stopping at stop signs. Four months ago, I decided that I will always stop at the stop sign.

This decision has had many positives results. I have already avoided a major accident. I was at a T intersection. I started to make a left when a car from the right blew past the stop sign without even slowing down. If I had coasted through the stop sign, we would have collided. There is much less stress stopping. You can concentrate on the stop. Then check to see if it is safe to proceed.

Coming to a full stop takes maybe two or three seconds and maybe thirty feet. Just last week the car in front of me did not stop and I did. I caught up the other car at the stop sign.

Let’s see. Stopping is not going to cost you time. You will be more focused on driving properly and you are increasing your chances that you won’t have an accident.

Walking I get to see all aspects of nature and life. Sadly, death and destruction are part of life.

This telephone pole is something I see all the time. I would love to know how many car accidents there are in our area.  I am always seeing signs of the destruction from our cars.

Then there is death. Every so often I will see a dead dear on the road. Last summer I saw a lot of crushed snakes.  This summer was much better for the snakes. I did see a few crushed turtles and some birds.

This was the sight when I looked out my window this morning.  At first, I thought someone had thrown some garbage in our yard.

When I went out to investigate it was the carcass of a rabbit. The rabbit had been torn to shreds. I am assuming that a coyote had attacked it. I never heard any commotion last night, so I have no idea when the incident happened.

I have written in the past about the ongoing violence between the crows and the ravens in our town. Even though I walk every day, I only catch glimpses of the realities of nature surrounding us.

I have had Covid all week and have only been able to do short walks. Not fun at all. Today was no exception.

I walked south on High Ridge Road and came up to the big lawn with the old maple tree there.

I spied on an object in the lawn. It looked like a branch with leaves on it sticking out of the grass. As I got closer the leaves had a triangle look to them

The leaves were a fox. If you look closely at the picture, you can see the fox.

There it was, hidden in plain sight.  All those cars were passing the fox and never seeing it.

The joy of walking is seeing these great sights hidden in plain sight.

Today I was walking on the train platform at Westport waiting for the train.

These junipers popped out of nowhere.  Usually, all one sees on the train tracks is garbage. There is garbage and these beautiful junipers.

It always amazes me where life takes hold.

I shall try to update on how long these bushes last.

Yes, there are space invaders in Stamford. When I walk around, I see them all the time. Some of them are even alien.

Of course, I am talking about objects that have invaded my space on the sidewalks. They run the gamut from cars, garbage, trees and bushes.

The Japanese Knotweed is one of the worse. It just takes over. A close runner-up is poison Ivy. It loves to climb up bushes and then starts to protrude onto the sidewalk space.

One space invader that I am ambivalent about are trees that are lifting up sidewalks as they grow. I like seeing these mighty trees, but I feel for someone who has issues walking trying to navigate the lifted sidewalk.

I do wish cars and other vehicles would not part on sidewalks. There are times when I am forced to walk on the street because of vehicle blockage. Plus, it demeans the quality of life in Stamford.

Let’s end the plague of space invaders in Stamford.

I had no idea that the walk would be so scary.  When I planned the walk, I knew it would be new territory but not scary.

The walk was from Grand Central Terminal in NYC uptown to 59^th Street. Then I crossed the 59th Street Bridge by foot to Queens.  That was the scary part. 

The pedestrian part of the bridge was shared with the bike lane. There was three feet for pedestrians and three feet for bikers. I knew it would be difficult when I saw a bike coming off the bridge going at a high speed.

The bikers were not able to pass each other without going into the pedestrian space   I would watch the bikes veer towards me at high speed and at the last second miss me as they scooted past me. Bikes would overtake other slow bikes and just miss me.

Did the bikes ever slow down NO! It was the longest two miles of walking I ever had. Luckily, I did not get hit. At this point I would think long and hard about walking on the 59^th Street Bridge.

Once I was off the bridge the walk was fine. I walked along Northern Blvd. Surprising it was mainly car dealers for a long time.

Okay, my scariest walk was when I was ten years old.  I had just seen the movie “The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad” It was a scary movie. Two of the creatures were a cyclops and a mean dragon.