friday november 21

today i was driving along york street when i came to a stop at a red light. i was the first car in the left lane (the pole position, if you will), and a taxi sat beside me in the right lane. as the opposite light turned red, i noticed a pedestrian start to cross the road on the far side of the right, in front of where we would be driving momentarily. this was odd, but i assumed he was just trying to make it to the center island/median, where he'd wait for a break in traffic and then go the rest of the way. our light turned green and the taxi and i began driving ahead, when, suddenly, it appeared to suddenly dawn on the pedestrian that he was walking against the light. rather than take the last two steps to the center of the road, he attempted to run back to where he'd come from. i was paying attention the whole time, and wasn't accelerating very quickly in the snow anyway, so i braked well short of him. the taxi did not. it attempted to slam on its brakes but still clipped his leg and sent him flying to the ground. he immediately jumped to his feet, apparently uninjured, and started to walk away (he looked more embarrassed than anything), while the taxi driver pulled over to the side of the road and ran back to see if he was okay. while i would've liked to see what transpired next, i realized that i probably had to keep driving to avoid holding up all the traffic behind me, and pulled away, being sure to keep an extra-sharp eye out for oblivious pedestrians.