Monday, January 12, 2009

crosswalk crusaders featured on pedestrian program

I was glad to see that Downtown residents Mike and Wendy Linde were featured on Perils for Pedestrians, a public-access cable show produced by Bethesda resident John Wetmore about - what else? - pedestrian safety. For years, the Lindes have been waging a silent campaign to make Silver Spring's streets less dangerous for those making their way on foot. Mike and Wendy took me on a walk in 2007, pointing out some of the business district's worst intersections for pedestrians.

Though I'd only gotten an e-mail from Wetmore about the Lindes' appearance the other day, I was surprised to see that the show was actually filmed last summer (Look at the leaves on those trees!). When I saw Mike and Wendy at Tom Hucker's fundraiser (come back tomorrow for pictures!), they didn't even know it had aired. ("He never contacted us back," Wendy says.) Fast forward to 21:30 to see the interview or, if you'd like to watch it on a TV, Perils for Pedestrians airs regularly on Access Montgomery TV 21.

2 comments:

Tina & Drew said...

Wow - the Silver Spring folks being interiewed (20 min mark) he wears a HELMET just to walk around???

Can we please interview someone representative of the majority and not the "special" crowd (he doesn't have a disability does he?) kinda reminds me of the kid from "Something About Mary."

I'm amazed I've made it around Silver Spring for so long on foot -whew! I'm a survivor. Come on folks it's WALKING. Common sense should kick in. Look both ways and walk!

Dan Reed said...

If you read my interview with the Lindes from 2007, you'll see that Mike wears a helmet because he is prone to seizures and has had an episode in the middle of Georgia Avenue.

I feel that the roads in Silver Spring are very wide and designed to encourage speeding that, when coupled with driver behavior, does make it very unsafe for anyone - disabled or not - to move around on foot. Silver Spring has a substantial population that doesn't own a car, so I think the Lindes are representative of that group.

It's not like drivers only go after them. I'm sure everyone's almost gotten run down by a car trying to cross the street in Downtown Silver Spring.