Drivers need to respect pedestrians

DEAR EDITOR:

Why do drivers not understand or remember the vital lesson they learned when first learning how to drive: unmarked crosswalks?

It doesn't matter if it's a two- or fourway crossing, a through road, or a semicorner. If there's at least a single corner, take Laurier at Gordon for example, a pedestrian is allowed to cross.

The amount of times I've tried crossing the street at the above mentioned and I'm left standing in the middle of the road in a dangerous position because drivers refuse to stop is absolutely wrong.

I'm following the rules of the road. I'm not jaywalking. Yet, hundreds of drivers completely ignore a pedestrian in the middle of a very busy road should be illegal. There is no excuse for pedestrians, who are crossing at unmarked crosswalks, to be blatantly ignored by drivers. This has to stop and it has to stop now. Otherwise, one day, one or more fatalities may happen. When a pedestrian is hit, the excuse the driver will give is that the pedestrian was crossing in the middle of the road and “I didn't see them,” when in reality they were crossing legally and the drivers were not paying attention to the unmarked crosswalks that are everywhere in Kelowna.

Greta Fader

Kelowna