[fuller]

As a pedestrian standing on the corner of an intersection, wishing to cross, you wait for the wave to pass.

Crossing between the clumps works great in theory but after each clump, sometimes seemingly out of nowhere, come the cars that couldn't turn onto the street until the clump passed. These few cars can be quite a force to contend with.

The wave has passed so you start crossing the five lanes, with, say, only one or two cars in the lanes close to you, far enough away that you can cross.

As you cross, these cars (quite rightly) start to change lanes, into the lanes you have yet to cross.

NOW, you're half way across as a car speeding toward you enters the lane you're about to cross through in order to reach the far sidewalk. HE HAS THE RIGHT OF WAY! Now what do you do?

Well, you either turn around and try to cross four lanes of traffic back to where you came from, or run like hell for the far curb, hopefully before being hit. (AND being held legally responsible for it, just to add to the fun)

I suppose the third option would be to stand in the middle of the road and hope that they don't revert back into the lane you are now standing in. But that's not really an option as the car would have the right of way there too. You wouldn't even be safe standing on the dotted line (or legally protected).

This scenario has happened to me quite a few times.

With a wide _two-way_ road there is at least the fallback option of pausing in the middle of the road, between the opposing flows of traffic until you have a chance to complete the crossing, should you miscalculate or have cars suddenly appear from a cross-street.

WIDE one-way streets can be lethal for even the most able-bodied pedestrians. And that's to say nothing for the inconvenience, and sometimes heart-stopping fear, that they present.