THE GREEN CROSS CODE MAN is fuming. Watching how we cross the busy roads in such a careless manner has brought out a different side of him that has never been seen before.
His message was simple: find a place with no parked cars, stop, look and listen, then cross when the road is clear. Keep looking and listening when crossing. Finding a place with no parked cars might be difficult these days (can be ignored by the city dwellers) but the rest of his instructions are absolutely valid.
Each time I see the Green Cross Code Man, he’s fuming: “What was so bloody important?” was his raised voice remark when telling the story of a guy on his mobile phone causing a driver to slam on the brakes. “Is she barking mad?” when recalling the incident of a lady stopping in the middle of the road to apply a some make-up… “she even flicked opened her make-up mirror!” As for the youngster who looked bewildered when he’d eventually shifted his face away from his mobile… “he must be a bloody magician – he crossed three busy roads whilst still looking at his mobile!”
His fury and frustration is understandable. After spending years teaching us how to safely cross roads, this is how we repay him. Our attitude when crossing the road is almost as if he didn’t exist. Some of us pedestrians think we have priority at all times when crossing the road: so what if the traffic lights are green, it’s my right to cross this road when I need to do so, you’ll just have to slow down or stop. And don’t even think about angrily blowing your horn, if you do I’ll give you the middle finger and tell you where to shove your steering wheel!
All his hard work, the Green Cross Code badges and the TV adverts, were all meaningless… absolutely meaningless! He talks about how the basic principals of crossing the road safely has been discarded and replaced with the principals on how to send anytime and anywhere text messages. Plugging your ears with headphones (those teeny weeny ones) to listen to your favourite music or podcast is now more important than avoiding being flattened by one of those sneakily silent electric vehicles.
The Green Cross Road Man has changed. Once a friendly, helpful gentleman, he’s now turned into a frustrated angry gent. His anger has become concerning: back in the day there wasn’t even a chance of him using explicit words, but unfortunately that has changed – even a brief discussion on road safety is littered with swear words spewing out his mouth. He still wants the best for us but feels his instructions fall on deaf ears.
We’ve changed the Green Cross Road Man. We have turned him into what he is today. We should feel ashamed of ourselves and revert back to being good pedestrians, but those texts messages need an immediate response, the interesting podcasts need to be heard and make-up needs to be applied. Time is of the essence so all of those actions can be done on the go… outdoors… even whilst crossing the busy roads.
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More fun essential retro reading: See Road safety: essential updates to reduce harm for top tips on road safety.
