Stop, Look, And Think

to get from one place to another there is usually a best way to go the ones who used the best way soon start a train alone in America the first trails were made by animals and then Indians use the old animal trails and made more of their own the first settlers who came to America followed the trails they found and open still more trails themselves when the settlers began to use wagons trails turned into roads who the early automobiles had a hard time on dirt roads in bad weather enca the roads were paved that let dry at around from place to place in town are called streets streets never really end you can go from any Street in America to any other Street in any other town and cars are going somewhere on these streets all the time day and night but what about people on foot well people on foot still have trails in town these trails are usually paved and called sidewalks but sidewalks do not go on and on most sidewalks have to stop when they come to a street ever since the old days people on foot have learned that they have to look out for what is moving in the road or the street if there isn't one there already you have to imagine a stop sign wherever the street stops the sidewalk you have to stop to be sure you don't try to use the street at the same time an automobile is using it drivers sometimes can't help but run into you if you are in the street at the wrong time an official police car will show us how hard it is for a car to stop quickly and why a driver may hit you even though he doesn't want to he had only 25 miles an hour a car is moving 37 feet each second or about twice the length of the car itself the driver if he sees somebody starting to cross in front of him takes almost a second before he can put his foot on the brake pedal during this time the car has already moved 30 feet now after he has his foot on the brake it is going to take at least 30 more feet to bring the car to a stop so if the person on foot has stepped out while the car is less than 60 feet away the car is going to hit him and there isn't anything the driver can do about it see here is where the car is when the person steps out this is where the driver sees him and here is where he puts his foot on the brake and this is how far it is going to take for the car to stop now what if the person who stepped out had been able to see this mark where the car was going to stop he would never have stepped out woody so when you don't know how far the car will take before it can stop it's best to just let it go by the police car had good brakes and it took 30 feet to stop many cars do not have good brakes and take even longer to stop you might think well even if the car can't stop I can stop I'm on foot all I have to do is just stop it takes longer than you think a young person walking normally suddenly sees a car coming but it takes a second or so to see the car and decide what to do then he stops actually it has taken six to eight feet to come to a stop and running it takes about 16 feet to stop this is the reason why you should always walk across the street and don't forget everything depends on whether the driver can see you can this drivers see this person about to cross the street no from where the driver is sitting the corner post of the car makes a blind spot now there is one way to be sure you are not in a blind spot and that the driver can see you if you can see his eyes you can tell if he can see you along the street you can often be in a blind spot as far as a driver is concerned if you are behind a tree or a bush or if you are behind a parked car you are in a blind spot many people are struck by cars when they suddenly appear from behind something in the middle of the block the driver doesn't want to hit them but it takes time to stop a car even if it is only going 25 miles an hour and if it is going faster it's going to take even longer to stop the driver doesn't expect anyone to be trying to cross the street here and it is always extra dangerous to try to cross anywhere but at a corner or a painted crosswalk remember to get from one place to another there is usually a best way to go the best way to get from one side of the street to another is to go safely this means at a corner or a crosswalk it means if there is a traffic light wait for a new green light one that has just changed to green to give you time to look both ways to be sure all cars have stopped to give you time to look behind you to see if there is a car coming down the cross streets of car that is going to turn at the corner at any corner the driver may start up again if he doesn't see you if you can see the driver's eyes you can tell whether he can see you trees fences and parked cars make blind spots but you don't run out in the middle of the block anyway because we have found out that you can't stop fast and we've seen that it takes a driver a long ways to stop and that he may hit you even though he doesn't want to so you always cross at the corner and you stopped because even the sidewalk stops when it comes to the street when you always cross safely you get into the habit of crossing safely and it becomes easier to remember to do it because even though it seems you're safe at the stop sign at the stoplight in the crosswalks you never take chances you always use your eyes and ears you always stop look and think