{"id":12214,"date":"2014-01-20T18:56:33","date_gmt":"2014-01-20T18:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/elizabethmachesky\/?p=41"},"modified":"2014-01-20T18:56:33","modified_gmt":"2014-01-20T18:56:33","slug":"red-lights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/red-lights\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Lights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three.\u00a0 If I had to take a guess, I’d estimate I was three years old when I was first able to identify that cars are required to stop at red lights.\u00a0 Coincidentally, three is the approximate number of red lights I run on a daily basis on my drive out of Detroit to work in the mornings.\u00a0 I live in the 18th<\/sup>\u00a0largest city in the country (according to\u00a0http:\/\/www.biggestuscities.com\/<\/a>).\u00a0 It is preposterous that I am able to run three red lights on an average morning with zero consequences.<\/p>\n

A few weeks ago, I invited my dad to dinner downtown.\u00a0 Years ago, he worked in the city.\u00a0 A true commuter, he drove downtown, parked in a structure, walked into his office, had lunch delivered, walked back to his securely parked car, and headed home on the highway, never truly interacting with Detroit.\u00a0 Now that I live downtown, I’ve been attempting to engage my family in a participatory relationship with the D, beginning with dinners at some of my favorite spots.\u00a0 So, on this particular Saturday night, my dad came downtown, checked out my apartment, and announced he’d drive to dinner.\u00a0 Not five minutes into our drive, I noticed my dad ran a red light.\u00a0 Likely an accident, I’m not sure he even noticed his wrong-doing, but I found myself feeling so upset and disappointed.<\/p>\n

In a city so great, how can people run red lights frequently without consequences, or, at times, without even noticing it?\u00a0 Living in both San Francisco and Chicago, I am used to dense traffic, making stop lights a mandatory safety feature.\u00a0 Furthermore, I run daily in Detroit’s suburbs, and I rely on red lights as an indicator that I can safely cross a street, the bright light my protector from the cars.<\/p>\n

Safety aside, shouldn’t people want to stop at red lights?\u00a0 Shouldn’t they want the 30 second respite to gawk at the skyscrapers, to peer into the store fronts, to marvel at the landmarks?\u00a0 Detroit’s reputation is so poor that commuters wish to make a quick escape rather than pause to adore the city’s charm.<\/p>\n

This month, my challenge for you is to pay attention to red lights.\u00a0 Make a conscious effort to stop and take in your surroundings.\u00a0 Study the people, the structures, the environment.\u00a0 If you don’t like what you see, do something to change it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three.\u00a0 If I had to take a guess, I’d estimate I was three years old when I was first able to identify that cars are required to stop at red lights.\u00a0 Coincidentally, three is the approximate number of red lights I run on a daily basis on my drive out of Detroit to work in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":115,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/115"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12214\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}