Don't Try To Walk In Plano

As a white person that relates to Stuff White People Like, one of the important things for me is being able to walk to things. I live in a neighborhood where I can walk easily to several great bars, great restaurants, a couple of grocery stores, and an infinite number of banks.

So one of the cool things about working at Beal Bank is that it's just across the toll road from The Shops at Legacy where many great (Naan) and generaly fine (Starbucks, Taco Diner) restaurants reside.

The other day I didn't bring my lunch to work and decided to walk over to The Shops and grab a sangwich. I had no idea that this simple act would put my life in mortal danger (cue the erie music).

First, there is no protected pedestrian walkway across the toll road. There is a "sidewalk". But this is merely a wide curb separating the left turning north-to-south u-turners from the people going east to west.

Once across the toll road I was confronted not with a side walk or concrete of any kind, but grass. It's like no one in there wildest imagination ever thought someone would walk across the highway rather than drive. Seriously, why walk when you can drive your giant gas guzzling Hummer 2 blocks and catch 5 minutes of Limbaugh?

After about a half block, I'm in The Shops proper. Here there are actual sidewalks and pedestrian traffic lights. So, I guess Plano thinks that as long as you've driven and parked here, you might as well walk. But, please don't let anyone see you do it.

The trip back was even more dangerous. As I tried to cross the toll road with my Potbelly (the sandwich, not my actual potbelly, but I guess that too) I was confronted with your typical suburban cell-phone talking coose who is so distracted with everything else going on in her vehicle, she can see a large man trying to cross the street with a roast beef sandwich in hand as she attempts a second lane right turn.

I'm still alive and will continue to defy death by walking over to The Shops for lunch. It's what my people like.