Jaywalking Is Just the Tip of Indifference to Laws

As I walk to work in the morning before the sun comes up, I always see drivers with their headlights off. Not some days. Not most days. Every day.

There are schoolchildren out there waiting for their buses -- in neighborhoods that have no sidewalks -- and we know they are not the most alert pedestrians, especially when they're running for the bus. Dark-colored vehicles, with their headlights off, are all but invisible, not only to pedestrians but also to other drivers.

I imagine that such careless and clueless drivers are not regular readers of your column, so I would appeal to other drivers to please do something to alert these law-breaking menaces. Flash your high beams at them. Flip your own headlights off and on at them.

I cringe every morning when I can barely see these stealth cars sharing the roads with children, joggers, dog walkers -- and me.

John Rowan

North Bethesda

Dear Dr. Gridlock:

My route home to Laurel each day at 4 p.m. is New York Avenue to the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. At the Bladensburg Road intersection, I've seen large groups of high school kids coming and going from the McDonald's restaurant on the inbound side of New York Avenue.

None of them uses the crosswalk. Quite a few are busy talking on cellphones. I've held my breath on more than one occasion when they have stepped into oncoming traffic.

They anger a lot of drivers by impeding the flow of traffic. Many times, I've also noticed a police cruiser in the area. They never stop or say anything to these kids.

It is just a matter of time before one or more of these youths are maimed or killed for the sake of a hamburger.

Robin P. Snow

Laurel

Many readers will see the first letter's defense of jaywalking as perfectly logical, but these other letters suggest an unintended consequence of ignoring traffic laws: a widespread sense that the laws are meaningless or ineffective.

Dr. Gridlock appears Thursdays in the Extras and Sundays in the Metro section. Send e-mails todrgridlock@washpost.comor write to Dr. Gridlock at 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071. Include your name, community and phone numbers.