There's no "I" in teamwork

But there is in blind. Citizenry, too.

I could sense something of some level was about to unfold while sitting at the red light of a busy intersection downtown today. It's always seemed like there is a high visually-impaired per capita in sf, so im surprised this doesn't happen more often.

An older, gaunt gentleman scuffled up to the yellow braille mat that warns blind people that speeding, unintelligent drivers are inches away. This man also had the blind walking cane that he tapped in front of him as he went, so he pulled up to the mat and stopped for a few drags of a cigarette while he waited patiently to cross the street.

Problem was, he was waiting for the light that was currently green with the lit up white walking man telling him to cross. Compounding problem: he couldn't see the walking man. Since I sometimes can sort of read minds, I could tell he was waiting for the sound of the traffic to change direction to know it was time to cross.

Sure enough, my light turned green and he started tapping his way into the street as an unaware car came barreling up on my left. Heroes usually need to act on the fly, so I quickly accelerated and pulled in slonch-wise into the middle of the intersection, stopping oncoming traffic. Meanwhile, a few onlookers half a block away came sprinting down to guide the man back to the curb.

I felt sorry for him, as he was clearly embarrassed. I know it's common sense to help a blind person, but it's always sort of refreshing to see strangers using it.