Lived downtown for a year and a half, my biggest fear currently is the way people drive

So, as the title suggests I live downtown and solo too. I don’t drive and now that the weather is nicer I’ve been walking about 25k-30k steps a day. I’ve gotten to know pretty much every intersection downtown from which are mostly safe and which I have to watch out for and am terrified to cross most days (e9th and euclid near Heinens being the worst).

Anyways, I’ve felt so shaken up recently as it seems like nearly every day I come close to getting hit by a car. I do everything people say to do…I remain vigilant and am not on my phone and look both ways and still cars will come out of nowhere and turn right (despite pedestrians having the right away) and nearly hit me. I’ve put my hand up if I see a car, signaling for them to stop and waiting to be waved on and sometimes still that doesn’t stop cars.

Take yesterday for example, I witnessed a car hit a motorcycle and the person went flying in the intersection on east 9th, prospect ave. Thankfully it seemed everyone was okay. Yet later that night, a car nearly hit me.

Its all just left me really just…scared. It feels like a matter of when I’ll be hit, not if. I know most of the intersections better than a lot of people do because I live downtown and cross them every single day, yet at the same time it feels like so unavoidable and like I will certainly get hit one day. I love Cleveland and I rarely feel unsafe downtown when it comes to say the fear of getting mugged or this and that and feel relatively safe walking alone at night as a woman but none of that worries me as much as the cars.

I apologize for the length of this post, i guess I’m just shaken up and sick of people who don’t understand basic pedestrian laws and who drive terribly downtown. It infuriates me how reckless people are who run red lights and turn right or left when pedestrians are crossing or whatever with zero regard for anyone but themselves. I frequently flip people off or yell at them, literally every single day because someone has to tell them how unacceptable and selfish they are being. Especially right after concerts or games let out and cars stop in the middle of intersections. it’s become much worse as a result of events during the summer.

People shouldn’t have to fear for the their lives everyday just because others are in too big of a hurry to wait a few seconds. It’s not the pedestrians responsibility to wait for cars when the crossing signal is on but rather the cars‘ responsibility to wait for pedestrian, it’s the law.