A walking target

I'd happily share a road filled with idiots if it meant there were fewer maniacs nearby.

- JONATHAN KRONSTADT

As I ambled aimlessly onto a pedestrian crossing in the busy commercial district of Siesta Key, Florida, a massive black pickup truck blew through the stop sign, coming within about a metre of ending me. "Yeah, keep driving like that and you'll end up dead or in jail," I yelled. In retrospect, this seems like pretty quick thinking but extremely stupid vocalising, as I'm guessing 50-75% of Florida drivers have a gun handy at all times. For all I know, it may be illegal to drive a pickup in the Gunshine State without a firearm. Thankfully, the driver was too busy being an arse and accelerating to be bothered by my barbs. So many pedestrians, so little time.

I walk a lot, especially when it's warm, which it was in Siesta Key. Walking is certainly the oldest, arguably the simplest, and some say the best form of exercise there is. In the US, however, it is nowhere near the safest. Whereas pedestrian deaths have been falling almost everywhere in the OECD's orbit (comprising 38 of the world's highest-income countries), the US hit a 40-year high in 2021. Cycling fatalities are on a similarly sad trajectory.