While most Chattanoogans drive to get around the city, lifelong resident Richard Waller III, who’s never owned a car, relies on the bus and his own two feet to get from point A to point B.
Waller, 64, often walks on sidewalks directly adjacent to high-speed, five-lane roadways such as Brainerd Road east of Missionary Ridge. On his way to catch a bus during an interview, Waller stepped into a crosswalk on North Germantown Road at its busy intersection with Brainerd Road.
“Let’s see if I can get across,” he said.
Just as he started to make his way across in front of a line of cars waiting at the stop light, Waller waved and shouted at a driver on Brainerd making a hard brake before trying to cut in front of him onto Germantown. He said that type of interaction is necessary to get drivers to stop.
“They’ll be zooming and flying down here,” Waller said. “They’re going to go. They ain’t going to stop or hesitate for you.”