Sidewalk Stroganoff, anyone?

Sidewalk Stroganoff anyone? I know that this is not the most appetizing idea of all, and if I had an image to go with it, you'd probably all run for the bathroom with violent intergestion. Sidewlk Stroganoff is a more bizzare way of saying 'human road victim.' I make you this offer because it seems that our impatient world is not only self-centered, but suicidal.
On Thursday, I took a trip into the city to do some pleasure shopping. this isn't the problem, far form it. While walking around the city from one place to another, I realsied that people are so goddamned impatient. I've learned it is a good idea to stand at traffic lights and wait for the little green man, despite whatever rush I'm in. Better to be late than never rock up because you are indented in a car vent. So many people were crossing busy city roads, not only against the lights, but while traffic was against them as well. I saw three different occasions where people were nearly collected by cars.
Seriously, how foolish do you need to be? In most cases, they hadn't finished crossing before the lights changed in their favor. While this can be a safe guarantee that no car is goiong to collect them, there will always be a time that someone is going to press their luck to race to beat the changing lights just as you step off the kurb and get in their way.
The worst case of pedestrian suicide I've noticed is actually local to me. A few times I've been walking up the hill to go shopping or to go to work/class when I've seen this man. A little senior in years and caucasian (I think.) He turned onto the main street a little way ahead of me, walking as happily as you like towards the shops, and was completely oblivious/ignorant/stupid enough to just keep walking. There are about 4 streets in close sucession to cross, and he just walked across them all without stopping, looking or seeing if anything was coming. Now, I've seen this man three times and each time, usually at the same intersection where a lot of cars turn, he has not stopped to see if it was safe to cross and was nearly collected by a car. He didn't look up to see them coming, and I am sure (but do not wish it upon him) that one day he isn't going to look and will be swept away in the midday traffic. Now, I haven't seen him at a set of traffic lights to see if he has enough patience/sense to stop and wait there, but if he doesn't, it probably explains why I haven't seen him in a while.
In all honesty, there is only one time that I do not sit around waiting on the little green man to tell me to cross the road, and that would be walking home at 130 in the morning from a night out. It is very easy to determine whether I am going to be flattened or not, considering that the streets are so quiet you can hear them coming for a while, or that the traffic is so divided on the streets, you only need to look one way to see if anything is coming or not.
At the end of the day, our society needs to see that it's impatience is not an aid but probably a major part of our own destruction. If you are someone who is impatient with crossing at the lights, I suggest you rethink this approach to life and when you are waiting for the little green man, take a few calming, medatitve breaths, and remember that being late is not worth getting killed over.
Perry