Before buying homeowner’s insurance, have you ever checked if it covers damages from a moose stepping into your living room? This was the topic of the consumer section on the first day we got our newspaper after moving to Stockholm. My American hubby had been there for two days and almost turned around. He’d thought we moved to the suburbs of a capital, not to the back woods.
Swedish moose warning sign
Well, during the next 11 years, he learned that moose are a big part of Scandinavian culture and everyday life. Moose accidents were a huge topic when he had to retake his driver’s license. You can’t drive anywhere in forested areas without seeing moose warning signs – unless they have been stolen by over-excited tourists. We occasionally met moose on the neighborhood streets and we even had one visiting our back yard. Luckily, it did not get drunk after nibbling on our apple tree!
We’ve asked some of our customers and friends what they say to strangers when asked why they are wearing their fun safety reflectors on their jackets or bags. Here is our ABC of good reasons (some real, others made up): “I wear funflectors because …
… they are cool” – Alice, 12
… it is a cute way to be safe” – Beth, mom of 2
… I love pink and purple peace signs” – Claire, 14
… I don’t want to get run over” – Daniel, dad of 3
… they are fun and the rest is a no-brainer” – Erin, mom of 4
… this is my ghost buddy” – Fernando, 4
… campus is so dark” – Gabrielle, 21
… I know which backpack is mine” – Hannah, 7
… they look cool when I skateboard” – Ian, 15
… I saw someone wearing them in the dark and realized what a difference they make ” – John, dad of 2
… if I’ve had too many beers to drive, it’s too dark to walk home without reflectors” – Keiran, dad of 5
… I always love the idea of guardian angels, these are better than most” – Lauren, 26
Angel reflectors are are available in our web shop here
… my wife put one on my jacket” – Michael, dad of 5
… the moose reflector match my bear skin” – Ned Neanderthal
… I want the garbage truck driver to see me” – Oscar
… I like to run after work and sometimes it gets dark before I’m done” – Peter, 32
… I cross a busy road in the dark to get to high school band practice early. Go Tigers!” – Quincey, 18
… I like walking, but sometimes I’m a bit slow crossing the street” – Richard, 78 and grandfather of 8
… woof” – Spot
Dog with cute paw print safety reflector.
… I’m a paramedic and I’ve seen too much of what happens when you don’t wear reflectors” – Tom, 28
… I wear lots of black so drivers don’t notice me even in parking lots and that can get scary. I love black reflectors on my purse!” – Ursula, 53
… I got mine from Santa” – Vera, 5
… I have a deal with my dad: I wear reflectors all year and he won’t put reflective tape on my Halloween costume!” – Will, 9
… fafa” – Xavier, 15 months, while pointing at the reflector hanging on his stroller
… my mom says she loves me so much I have to wear them. I love my purple ghost reflector!” – Yolanda, 13
… I don’t want to be hit by another car” – Zoe Zombie We are curious to know what you would have said. Feel free to comment! The funflector team
…is by far the most risky place for a pedestrian to cross a street. Did you know that?
Sadly, this month, three Libertyville students were struck by cars, while crossing roads at the middle of the block*. We were relieved to hear that none of them were badly injured. A look at statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration tells us that 76% of fatal pedestrian accidents occur between intersections. Assuming that most people cross streets and roads safely at intersections means that it is significantly more than three times as dangerous to cross streets away from intersections. We have brought up walk-to-school programs before on this blog and believe strongly that, as a society, we do need to get the next generation used to walking and biking more. For health reasons, for environmental reasons and to increase quality of life. Parents may think they do their kids a favor when they drive them to school. In fact, it has the opposite result. More cars lead to more accidents, more exhaust and less exercise. It is time to discuss investing in walk-to-school programs, not just more lanes for cars. We would like to see more parents teaching kids from an early age how to walk safely and we would like to see incentives to keep cars away from schools.
So what do kids need to learn before you can let them loose? Based on the statistics mentioned above , safety precautions can be boiled down to: 1.
Use cross walks! Don’t cross at the middle of the block. Cross walks at intersections are safer than cross walks in the middle of the block.
Use safety reflectors when walking from dusk through dawn. (70% of pedestrian accidents occur during the dark hours.) Those two pieces of advice would go a long way! However, from personal experience, we’d like to add this one:
Before crossing, even if you have a green light, look back to check that the driver in the right turn lane has seen you. Too many are on their cell phones and have no idea that you are there.
* In the article it is stated that the high school student crossed at an intersection. However, right there, the highway has no stop signs, no traffic lights and there is no pedestrian cross walk, which gives drivers a perception of being “in the middle of the block” although there is a small road crossing.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle is a mantra that is often heard around Earth Day. I knew I had a box with outgrown and worn out jeans to tap into, which could be REUSED for some fun craft projects.
Some of these jeans were too cute to throw away when the knees wore out.
So, what can you do with your kids’ outgrown pants?
We are big fans of making our footprints on earth as small as possible. There is no planet B. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about harnessing the wind. So what more can you do?
Here is our second suggestion: Redefine “bargain”—add the life time of the product to the bargain hunting game. You’ll be surprised how many nice quality items you can buy and still save money over time! Let’s start with an example. While living in Europe, I used to buy a quality brand of indoor slippers. They would typically last for two years indoors and then be abused as back-yard slippers for another two years. After moving to the US, I bought the same brand of slippers, but a completely different model. At first, I was happy to find them at about half the price compared to Europe. However, after only one year of indoor use, they were ready for the land fill. Instead of leather, the materials were all man-made and were fraying everywhere. The straps had stretched, so the slippers did not stay on my feet any longer. So much for a bargain!
This is how much more it cost for four year’s use of “cheap” slippers:
Bike shaped safety reflectors, available also for wholesale and bulk orders.
Did you know that you can order in bulk and get quality reflectors significantly cheaper? You can even get reflectors with your logo or slogan! Contact us so we can tell you more! We have just shipped bike shaped reflectors to a school to be used as rewards at a bike derby. Lucky kids! We put some red and blue ones in our web shop as well, in case you just would like a few… In December, we posted about Vienna Elementary School, who bought reflectors as part of a walk-to-school program. They have “Walking Wednesdays” where some parents walk or bike with the kids to get to school safely. The kids are rewarded with tokens to hang on their backpacks and sometimes the token is a funflector® pedestrian reflector. Parents are rewarded with coffee, sponsored by a local coffee shop. Lucky parents! On March 14th, walking/biking kids were rewarded with Shamrock reflectors (Can they get more lucky?) and here is some amazing statistics for that day’s turnout: Half the students walked or biked to school (only 21% of the students are designated walkers). At least 38% of our bus riders walked to school. 340% more students walked or biked to school compared to an average day last school year. 59% more students walked or biked to school than on the best day of last year’s Walk/Bike Challenge Week. Here is a Patch video from last spring (before they had reflectors). What a great community! Congratulations and keep up the hard work! Elisabeth
We are big fans of making our footprints on earth as small as possible. Taking good care of the only planet we have, seems to be the obvious thing to do. So what can you do?
Here is one idea: Harness the wind — hang your laundry to dry in your back yard and save electricity and/or gas (and save on your utility bills)! We had our clothesline put away during the winter months, but now it is out again! A big load of shirts and pants dried in just a a few hours. If you have some trees to attach the clotheslines to, it’s an investment of a couple of dollars for a clothesline and some clothespins. If, not this Dutch drying rack might be the best solution. We bought ours a couple of years ago and it is still standing strong. A friend recommended it after trying several cheaper ones which didn’t even last through their first Midwestern storm. I was happy to see that this model is still available at Gaiam. For a couple of more days you can even get a $20 discount (and free shipping)! It is easy to mount, folds up quickly and can easily be lifted out of its base to be put away. As an extra bonus, the scent of wind dried clothes and sheets is the best! The Clothes Line Shop has clothespins and some practical accessories like baskets for clothespins to hang on the line. Good to know for when the green pouch, that I got in France 15-plus years ago wears out.
As a parent of three, I feel woozy just thinking about backing over children. My own or someone else’s would be equally horrifying. Our garage is a detached one and in the back of our yard. The turnaround is used by the kids for rollerblading, basketball, hopscotch etc. To avoid any accidents when getting the car out, I require the kids to stand on the lawn, all together in a spot where I can see them at all times. Either I know exactly where all of them are or the car does not move.
Today, 45% of all new vehicles have back-up cameras installed to alert the driver about any obstacle behind the car that is impossible to see otherwise from the driver’s seat. Mandatory back-up cameras in all vehicles have been in the spotlight the last couple of days. The 2008 law on creating rear visibility standards for vehicles by Feb. 28, 2011, has once again been delayed. The plan was to require all vehicles to conform to the new standard by September 2014. Each year, about 228 deaths occur in back-up accidents. It is estimated that half of those could be avoided if all cars had a safety system in place.
We have been wondering for a while how much pedestrian’s lives are worth, so we got out our calculator.
It’s not winter any more, but not spring either. The in-between-seasons nondescript weather only inspires one to dream about being elsewhere. I find myself longing for walking barefoot. Green summer grass or a warm floor on a crystal clear winter day…
Kids walking barefoot
In France, old stone barns are sometimes converted into charming living quarters. For a couple of years, I had the fortune to live in one. During winter, the floors were terribly cold no matter how many rugs and slippers we used. However, on hot summer days, the cool floors were a blessing. Ever since, for me it’s real summer if I enjoy walking barefoot on cool tile floors!
From France, I moved to Sweden and built a house on a cement slab with radiant (water) floor heating on the entire ground floor. The colder it was outside, the warmer the floors were inside! mmm…! What a shock moving into an American house with forced air heating and poor insulation after that. I’m still dreaming of converting to radiant heat…
Walking barefoot is informal, casual, relaxed and signals that the stress from the office and running errands has been left behind. That’s most likely why the book title “The Barefoot Home” sounds so intriguing. The book provided abundant inspiration for my last remodeling job. And yes, the new addition has a Mediterranean style tile floor!
Going barefoot, at least some of the time is good for your feet and your posture. When my kids were little, doctors told me toddlers should walk barefoot (where safe of course) to develop their balance and muscles properly. It might be cute to put shoes on babies even before they need them, but those tiny soft bones are better off not being confined.
Elisabeth
Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes in Michigan are best barefoot!
Last Friday night at 6.30, I drove my kids around. You know, picking up one here, dropping off the other one there and still make it to the jump-off of the basketball game of the third. There had been flurries in the air since lunch time so the highway way was slushy and slippery. Ten minutes earlier, at the intersection of two IL state highways, it was so slippery, I couldn’t get the car to stop until several feet past the stop line. Pretty scary considering I was only going 20 mph.
In the middle of the high way, I saw a guy, but only as a dim shadow against the glare from oncoming traffic. He crossed the four-lane highway with a cup in his hand, dressed all in dark. He stopped at the painted median strip, which is also used as a turn lane. That’s where I passed him. I hope he made it over to his car on the other side despite the fact* that:
– more accidents happen in the middle of the block than at intersections (73%)
– more accidents happen during the dark hours than at day light (69%)
– the road was very slippery and it was difficult to stop even at low speed
– visibility was poor
– it was Friday night rush hour traffic (23% more accidents occur on Fridays and Saturdays than on other other weekdays)
– he’s a man (70%)
I wish I had a video or photo of what I saw, but I didn’t want to lower this guy’s odds even more by being a distracted driver… Take a peak at the photos below and imagine snow slush on the road, snow flakes on your windshield and two more lanes.
A pedestrian crossing a dark highway with and without reflectors. The median strip is used as a turn lane for traffic from both directions and is not a safe haven for pedestrians.
I might just be paranoid, but I think I would have walked the extra 300 feet to the intersection and traffic lights and crosswalk. I also wear pedestrian safety reflectors, several if the weather is this bad. After all, every day, 11 pedestrians get killed in traffic and many more injured. For me, it is more important to see my family again than trying to save a minute or two… What would you have done?
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