The Awareness......where it gone?!!!

Hey folks!

I’ve been noticing something for a while now but a few separate incidents in the past week brought it back to the forefront of my mind and I need some opinions here! Where has situational awareness gone? Do people not notice their surroundings? LOOK and see what’s happening before they do something (especially on the road!) What’s happening? I know that much of it is due to distractions from screens or thoughts, but wow! It’s a major problem!

I cycle on the road sometimes and for the past few weekends in particular, my team and I have had some close encounters with vehicles. Some have been due to cars or trucks coming a bit too close to us, but MOST have been because of people simply not paying attention to what’s happening on the road, and driving only for themselves. (Yes I am aware that some cyclists do craziness but our group isn't so adventurous and we're VERY mindful of road safety!) Thankfully I have some loud mouthed teammates whose shouts stopped them in their tracks in time!

The next incident happened earlier this week and I was in between wanting to laugh but having no patience to deal with it. Thankfully good sense prevailed and I helped out the guy, otherwise I might still be waiting! I had ordered something that was to be delivered to my house. The delivery driver called on the way and it was clear that he had mixed up the address and turned into the wrong street. I told him the address again and hung up, since he was only about four minutes down the one road he had to drive along. A solid TEN minutes later, he was no where in sight, so I called him back to find out where he was. He was clearly flustered (and admittedly I thought to myself that he sounded like was 80 years old.) I asked him what landmarks he had passed and gave him a few, and he was completely blank “I eh know nuh, I eh see anything.” I asked him about more landmarks with clear, big signs: “I eh know, I doh think I pass that.” I was thinking: “if you’re looking for somewhere, wouldn’t you pay attention to the things you’re seeing around you? How else would you know where to go?!” I almost asked him outright what was he really looking at?! (By the way, he said he did not have Waze because of some reason that he mumbled.) Anyway, he didn’t know where I was and at this point, I didn’t know where he was. I ended up walking on to the main road while he was still on the phone. FINALLY he told me he passed a pet store and I knew exactly where he was, literally less than two minutes from me. I told him great, keep driving, you’ll see me at the side of the road in about a minute. FOUR MINUTES later, there was no sign of him!! As I called him back to find out HOW he could get lost on a straight road, I heard a van on the road and thankfully it was him! I barely said anything to him besides thank you because there weren’t many constructive things to say by then. What made it worse is that the guy was NOT 80 as I suspected; in fact, I would guess that he’s even younger than me! So what was the excuse for being so absent minded and distracted?!!! It can't be because he was checking Waze!!!

The final incident happened the morning of writing this. The whole scene played out right in front of me and there’s a young lady now whose guardian angel was working overtime this morning! A car in front of me stopped to let out a truck, which was making a right turn, and was halfway out in the road waiting for the next lane to be cleared…clearly angled where it wanted to go. The young lady - maybe early 20s - decided that was the perfect time to cross the road. She crossed in front of the car ahead of me, and started to walk in front of the truck WHICH WAS TURNING RIGHT. Thankfully the truck guy noticed her right as he started to move forward as the road cleared, and he had to brake hard for her. It was ONLY at this point she seemed to notice what was happening, glanced at the guy in the truck and said thanks, and kept walking across the road. I was incredulous because I don’t think she realised the stupidity of her decision, nor what was happening before she even tried to cross the road. Had the truck guy peeled out faster because he wanted to clear the lane as quickly as possible, things could have gone way south. The girl/young lady also didn’t seem phased by what had happened either, as though she did not realise she had done anything wrong. (Oh, there was also a zebra crossing quite close to where we were!)

Anyway, what is it? Age? Maturity? Stress? Distractions? Screens/phones? What’s happening that makes people ignore, disregard or simply not notice what is happening around them? There are daily instances I’m sure everyone can name, but what’s the reason? Or reasons?

Parents, please please PLEASE spend some time educating your impressionable and fresh minds to NOTICE things around them. Not just for learning purposes, but for safety. This is one reason why we advocate for no screens on journeys; children can get chance to learn routes, see what’s outside. You can play Simon Says, they can identify different car models, find cars of different colours (a common childhood game of mine), or simply…….observe.

Searching for awareness?!