Burmont Road, Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania
By Steve Dunham, copyright 2026
Burmont Road, Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania |
Driving is faster and more convenient because of the sacrifices of pedestrians. Driving is faster when drivers don’t have to obey speed limits, stop signs,* or red lights, and driving is more convenient when drivers don’t have to park legally. For example, drivers routinely use sidewalks, crosswalks and center lanes for parking; pedestrians subsidize this behavior by experiencing inconvenience and danger.
Danger? Yes. I’ve been hit twice: once while crossing a street with a green light and once from behind on the sidewalk. A friend of our family was killed while walking when hit by a truck. When I mentioned these incidents to someone who said that running stop signs is not bad, he said I was using extreme examples.
The lack of traffic enforcement also gives driving a competitive advantage over public transportation, depriving it of fares and depriving governments of revenue from traffic tickets.
See my articles “It Wouldn’t Hurt to Use the Crosswalk, Or Would It?” (2020) and “Feet Don’t Come First in Fredericksburg” (2016).
* In April 2025 I counted 100 cars approaching stop signs in Drexel Hill and found that only 14% of the drivers obeyed stop signs.
