One thing I guess I would be is a self-appointed advocate of pedestrian safety. First of all, yes I am a pedestrian. I walk to work because I only live a few blocks away. Plus it is healthy and saves a bunch on fuel costs.
My rant on this one is the fact that there is no safe place for people to walk over here. The main income source over here on the Oregon Coast is tourism. We would be dead without tourists. The bulk of souvenir shops are in the downtown area aka Oceanlake. Unfortunately it is along Highway 101. The highway is very busy during the summer and motorists don't always follow the speed limit. That makes it difficult for anyone walking along shopping to cross the highway. It's the law that if someone is in the crosswalk, the car has to stop. One out of every ten cars do stop for a pedestrian in the crosswalk. Usually the motorist is talking on a cell phone and not paying attention.
The sidewalks are not safe either. We have jerks riding skateboards making it unsafe for pedestrians (for the record, I'm not anti-skateboard. We have a great skate park here and I think that's where the boarders belong.) The boarders are not the only culprits. There are people riding along on segways. They push their way on the sidewalk not caring that they could injure someone.
My suggestion to make things safe is to first place patrol officers on duty monitoring whether people are stopping or not for people in the crosswalks. They do have stings where volunteers cross the highway but drivers get advance warning. They need to be caught off guard. Also there needs to be a law where skateboarders are banned from riding on sidewalks while pedestrians are present. Segweys should be banned altogether. I believe the only motorized scooters allowed on sidewalks are ones used for mobility assistance like the Rascal or a wheelchair. People riding Segweys obviously don't need assistance because they have to stand to ride.
'nuff said.