After years of driving, I have formulated the rule of "Never trust a pedestrian." I have seen peds, some of them adult and presumably sane, do the maddest things.

One day I was driving down the street past Kansas University Medical Center, which has a low speed limit. Ahead of me, and with her back to me, a woman was jogging on the sidewalk. Suddenly she leapt sideways into the street in front of me. She hadn't checked for traffic, and she paid no attention when I braked behind her.

That's just one example. Never trust one.

Then there are the people who stand on the very edge of the curb with their toes projecting into traffic. As if they never, never might lose their balance and fall into the side of a moving car...