NOTE: The link to the YouTube video to the right may not be accessible from restricted sites.
I told our local O&M group, WOMA (the Metropolitan Washington O&M Association), about my horrifying discovery -- at the 6-lane suburban street where Dick and Lorraine were killed, it wasn't possible to hear the cars with enough warning to know if it is clear to cross, even when it was quiet (what we now call a Situation of Uncertainty).
A few weeks later one of the WOMA members, Linda Sussman, called to tell me that she found another place where it was not possible to hear the cars with enough warning to know if it is clear to cross.
I bought a videocamera and went to meet her and her client at the crossing.
When I arrived, I thought I had wasted my time because it didn't seem dangerous.
It was not another 6-lane throughway, it was a two-lane, residential street with a speed limit of 25 mph and so quiet I could hear nothing but the birds singing.
But then I observed what happens there, as you can see in the video to the right.
The crossing time is 7 seconds, and some of the cars could not be heard (or seen!) until they appeared around the bend to the right, only 4 seconds away!
It was another Situation of Uncertainty. YIKES! Once again, I was shocked . . .
. . . so -- these Situations of Uncertainty happen not only at wide, speeding throughways.
They also happen at narrow, quiet residential streets!
On the next page, we'll consider what Situations of Uncertainty are.