School children know, no right of way

There is no “Right of Way” when it comes to school children. There is only “My Right of Way” which allows them to go and come anyway they feel like it.

For example we saw two students going to school on a motorcycle. When they saw us taking a picture of them, the one who was driving took both hands off the handle bars and showed off. 

For a moment we thought we were going to cause an accident just by taking a picture. We put the camera away.

Bicycles were going down both sides of many streets, some facing traffic, others going with it. Motorists seemed apprehensive, and well they should be, because any minute one of the erratic bicyclists could hit a bump in the road and end up in the traffic lane.

We know all of this and yet, as motorists even coming to a school zone, we tend  to press the 25 mph speed limit. 

Seldom do we consider that this is an upper limit. It’s all right to go slower particularly on these beautiful fall mornings when school children know, “No Right of Way.”  

We keep thinking of the cartoon of the sailboat crossing the bow of a freighter doing 20 knots shouting 

“I’ve got the right of way!” Only this is no joke.