"Watch out for the other guy" traffic safety commercial, c. 1960s

On the Takoma listserv, there has been discussion about people not practicing safe social distancing.  Although most people are following the guidance.

When I first moved to DC (30+ years ago), I came having lived in a college town for many years. There, students (pedestrians) ruled the roost, so people walked in front of cars, knowing cars would stop. I did that at first, but found very quickly that DC wasn't Ann Arbor. Cars ruled, not pedestrians.

Soon after moving here, I read an article maybe in the Washington Post about how a U Chicago college student had been killed in a street accident. She didn't walk in front of a car. She had crossed a street part way and waited in the pedestrian refuge. She did everything right, but a car jumped the median and hit and killed her anyway.

Thinking about it at the time I thought a lot more about "defensive walking" and taking all reasonable precautions. As the old tv ads about car accidents used to say "watch out for the other guy."

The NW Branch Trail is really cool because it shows how shared use trails can integrate other park and civic assets and connections.  

The stretch between Rhode Island Avenue and the West Hyattsville Metrorail Station links to a skateboard park, a ballfield, tennis and basketball courts, a playground, and a number of supermarket-anchored shopping centers, along with connections to other nearby parks.

And then later taking up biking, I was a street rider mostly for 20 years at the time, about 11 years ago, riding a few miles on the Northwest Branch Trail, which is pretty much separated from traffic except for some road crossings, I realized how much of my mental energy and focus street riding was spent on "defense" or protecting myself against the potential of a car to hit or kill me.

These days, wrt "defensive space" in supermarkets, parks, sidewalks, and the public spaces, just like street cycling or walking vis a vis cars, you have to take care of yourself with the idea that you can't necessarily rely on others to do the right thing.

Although, in my experience with a handful of exceptions, since this problem started -- where I am living now, quarantine like measures started around 3/13 although in phases, and it took a few days for things to really sink in--people have been pretty conscious of distancing.