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To the Editor,

Of the many great things I’ve heard folks say about Beaufort County, two are that the people are so friendly and that there is a church on every street corner. To me, those go hand-in-hand. However, our visitors to Beaufort County have obviously not spent a lot of time here as pedestrians or bicyclists. Whenever I meet people, they usually tell me that they’ve seen me running. I love to jog from my house down to the waterfront and the degree of pedestrian access varies from great to not so great. I’ve been swerved at, honked at, and yelled at (once for running with a stroller on the boardwalk). Last week, I dropped my son off at Eastern Elementary and witnessed car after car pass a disabled man in a wheelchair trying to cross the street.

I would like to challenge us to all be better and more courteous citizens. Lobby our officials to make our county and cities more bicycle and pedestrian friendly. The Cycle NC Coastal Ride and proposed changes to 15th Street are a great start. One free and easily accessible change is to start giving pedestrians the right of way when we drive. That includes stopping when a pedestrian is trying to cross the street and moving over when a bicycle or pedestrian is in the road or on the shoulder. It even includes stopping for those uncourteous pedestrians that cross the street slowly and diagonally- you know what I’m talking about. Pedestrian and bicycle courtesy fit our friendly culture, but will require us to change the way we drive.

Dominic Reisig

Washington