Streetwise - The Jewish Standard

Rosh HaShanah, Yom Kipppur, and Sukkot made a lovely time for strolling about town.

Unfortunately, as is always the case on our chaggim, people are still walking in the middle of the road, with their children. There are ample sidewalks now in the area, and though they are not wide enough for conversing four abreast, they provide a measure of safety for those who choose to stroll in the afternoons or on their way to and from shul.

This may be a pleasant way to while away the hours of our one-after-another holidays, but it is a lethal pastime. There are cars driving through the towns, as well as buses and other vehicles. Not everyone drives as slowly as I do, and yet I have had to brake suddenly, all too often, for a child dashing into the street or a group chatting somewhere in the middle of a roadway or intersection.

There seems to be blind oblivion to the fact that we are living in the land of the secular and in a very integrated community. People have the right to drive through the town at will. This is not Mea Shearim. No one will be stoned for driving. But standing and walking in the streets with children and carriages is a danger to everyone, day or night.

I have advocated for reflector vests after sundown and apparently no one agrees that this is important enough to bring up in shul or through this newspaper. One day, not far away, there will be a serious accident, and there will be no one to blame but blindness to reality.

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