Learning to slow down

I drive fast. Not too fast — I don’t get tickets. But I do push the limits.
I commuted to West Palm Beach on A1A for many years, and consider myself lucky that my job required only a couple years of I-95 commuting — to Hollywood and Miami Beach.
Now I travel closer to home, and often on foot or bicycle.
Traffic on A1A feels very different to a body not ensconced within an air-conditioned space secured behind heavy metal doors. I notice now when cars whiz by or when large vehicles crowd the sidewalks.
Since the A1A road construction ended earlier this year, there are now 16 pedestrian crosswalks between Linton Boulevard and Lantana. I think that’s good.
So, as summer settles in, I’ve decided it won’t kill me when behind the wheel to slow down, check my rear view mirror, and stop to let people cross when they are waiting at the crosswalk signs. They just want to get to the beach — and that seems like such an enviable ambition — why would I want to make them wait? Besides, it’s the law.
I’m going to slow down.
— Mary Kate Leming, editor