Casperites: Please Stop Wearing Dark Colors When Walking At Night

Do they still teach young children in elementary school to wear bright or reflective color clothing when walking at night? Not that children that age should be out after dark without their parents, but maybe in my advanced years I just remember being taught that at a fairly young age. That's probably why it's stuck with me. That's also one of the main reasons it bugs me so much to see so many people wearing dark clothing while they are walking and jogging at night.

It probably wouldn't be that much of a pet peeve to me IF the perpetrators were obeying the law. Allow me to illustrate further. In the past few weeks, I have either almost got in accident/hit a pedestrian or seen somewhere barely miss one because they were:

1. jaywalking AND
2. wearing dark colored clothing (see also: all black)

Common sense would dictate, unless you are a ninja-in-training or attempting something nefarious, why would you be wearing dark clothing at night anyway? Especially when the roads are snowy and/or icy. Combine that with not crossing the street on crosswalks or not obeying light signals, and you get a recipe for disaster.

Yes, everyone knows the pedestrian is always in the right, but again, common sense, people... it really does go a long way.

As much as it's been bothering me lately how often I'm seeing people wearing dark colored clothing while walking and jogging, at least this gentlemen is wearing a brightly colored face mask. I'll have to give him cool points for actually wearing the mask and it being easy to spot.