A ridiculous experience at an intersection left one Redditor craving optimal pedestrian infrastructure.
The visitor took to r/f***cars to lodge a complaint, sharing a story and short video of the ordeal.
"This intersection blew my mind when I was trying to get to a Target (department store) across the street from my hotel in New Mexico," they began. "'Across the street' ended up being a 12-minute walk, partially due to this insane street crossing design: 4.5 minutes to cross in what should have been 30-60 seconds. No need to watch the whole video, since it's so psychologically painful to endure.
"... Albuquerque , you can do better!"
Midway through the nightmare, the poster had to just stand in a median while they waited for yet another signal that it was safe to cross. It was a microcosm of the experience, which featured interminable delays interrupted by just seconds to cross as many as five lanes of traffic.
On the last leg of the crossing trek, it appeared like the crosswalk could have remained open for at least another 35 seconds with traffic stopped, but the countdown clock expired, and the beg button issued a declarative "wait" — and there was a Bronco planted firmly in the crosswalk anyway.
It's not uncommon for pedestrians to face similar problems all over the globe. In Toronto, one sign tells folks to "wait for gap" (in traffic), which would be laughable if it weren't so horrifying, while a truck on a sidewalk was an obstacle for a Redditor in Amsterdam.
These issues are incredibly dangerous, of course. But they're solvable, as one of the largest cities in Germany showed what a makeover of lanes of asphalt can look like. Plus, pedestrian-friendly areas are a boon for businesses and reduce pollution.
In a sad commentary, a couple of commenters pointed out that this experience was actually a good one because the crossings were accessible and the beg buttons featured working audio.
Thankfully, many cities are rethinking such car-centric infrastructure.
As one user said: "America: makes something impossibly inconvenient and dangerous for pedestrians while spending billions on car infrastructure. Subsidizes sprawl and makes density impossible with zoning based on a century of bad policy.
"Also America: 'people don't walk anywhere so why should we improve pedestrian infrastructure?'"
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