Backstory: In Marin County, walkers, bikers, and hikers rule the road

Here, if you don't walk, run, or ride a bike, it's as if you are personally responsible for global warming.

from the March 23, 2007 edition

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Up and down California, pedestrians, by law, have the right of way. Crossing a street in San Diego or Bakersfield is not like attempting to venture across Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, where even a green light doesn't mean it is safe to leave the sidewalk. In Los Angeles, only actors with three-picture deals are allowed to walk across the street without being honked at by someone in a Hummer. (If your last name is Spielberg, drivers are required, as a result of lobbying by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, to turn off their engines, shout "You're the greatest, Steve," and hurl unproduced scripts at him.)

Still, if you really want to be certain to stroll through an intersection without problems, get across the Golden Gate bridge and into Marin County. Once there, all pedestrians and most species of plants will bring any car to a halt.

You'll find that anyone not in a car has slightly different privileges. Take bicycle riders, for instance. It appears that as long as they wear extremely tight-fitting shorts and keep their body fat less than 12 percent, they are allowed to slow traffic to 5 m.p.h., not stop at red lights, and use no turn signals other than yelling "Do I look great?" for left turns and "Do I look great, or what?" when turning right.

All this should not be unexpected in a place where residents shun plastic bags, Velveeta, nonorganic cat food, and polyester. Where anti-dodge ball activists picket other anti-dodge ball activists for not being anti-dodge ball enough. Where drivers know that all you can do when confronted by a pedestrian crossing in the middle of the street is smile, say "thank you," and calmly listen to the last two acts of Der Meistersinger.

• Chuck Cohen, an advertising writer, lives in Mill Valley, Calif.

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