Pothole spotting

Day 34: Pothole spotting. Build muscle memory for one specific street scenario. Week 5 of the year-long curriculum. Here are the rules for this one. Try this one as a thought experiment: an East Village block during delivery rush. The play is the same every time. Potholes catch toes, ankles, and stroller wheels. Scan the path two strides ahead, especially crossing intersections. Drill it once and you'll catch yourself doing it without thinking. Three things to do. Do 1: Look two strides ahead, not at your feet. Do 2: Step around potholes, not over them — the lip catches toes. Do 3: Use the smoother side of the crosswalk when you have a choice. Three things to avoid. Avoid 1: Walking through a crosswalk with eyes on your phone. Avoid 2: Stepping onto a temporary steel plate at full stride. Avoid 3: Assuming a puddle is shallow. Why this matters: Trip-and-fall injuries in crosswalks are common — and they're worse because they happen with traffic about to move. Risky move: Crossing a one-way street while only looking the way cars come. Cyclists, scooters, and wrong-way drivers come from the other side too. Safe move: Using the push button at intersections that have one. It often extends the walk phase — more time to finish the crossing safely. Risky move: Walking next to a truck that has its right turn signal on. Truck right turns are the deadliest interaction for pedestrians. Stop and let it pass. Safe move: Pulling out one earbud as you approach an intersection. Restoring your hearing restores most of your situational awareness. Risky move: Crossing while a delivery e-bike is approaching at speed. E-bikes are faster and quieter than they look. Let them pass first. Safe move: Standing behind the tactile strip until the train fully stops. Keeps you outside the danger zone for sway, suction, and the platform gap. Risky move: Darting out from between two parked vans. Drivers cannot see you and you cannot see them. Classic dart-out collision. Safe move: Waiting on the curb until the steady white walker appears. Steady walker is your green light. Cross at a normal pace. Risky move: Standing at the edge of the platform with toes over the yellow strip. A bump or a gust from an approaching train can pull you forward. Stay behind the tactile strip. Safe move: Crossing only at the marked crosswalk even if it adds 20 seconds. Drivers expect pedestrians at corners and almost never expect them mid-block. Risky move: Hopping off the curb to wave down a cab in a moving lane. Drivers behind the cab won't expect a pedestrian in the lane. Wait at the curb. Safe move: Stepping back when a cyclist rings a bell behind you. A bell is a request for space. Giving it prevents a sudden swerve into traffic. Risky move: Trusting a turn signal as a promise the driver will yield. A blinker shows intent, not yielding. Wait until the vehicle actually slows. Safe move: Walking an extra block to a lit, signaled corner after dark. Lighting plus a signal dramatically cuts your risk at night. Risky move: Sprinting across on a solid red hand because traffic looks clear. Turning vehicles and e-bikes appear fast. The signal protects you from things you cannot see. Safe move: Pausing audio before stepping into the crosswalk. A second of silence is cheap insurance against the thing you did not see. Risky move: Crossing diagonally through an intersection to save time. Diagonal crossings double your exposure to turning vehicles from every direction. Safe move: Letting passengers exit the subway car before stepping on. Prevents the shoving that pushes people toward the platform edge. Risky move: Crossing while looking down at your phone. You miss turning vehicles, cyclists, and silent EVs. Heads up for the whole crossing. Safe move: Letting a right-turning truck complete its turn before stepping off. Removes you from the truck's huge right-side blind spot. Risky move: Assuming a driver sees you because their headlights are pointed your way. Headlights illuminate the road, not driver attention. Confirm with eye contact. Safe move: Holding kids' hands and keeping them on the inside of the sidewalk. Puts an adult between them and the curb — the simplest, strongest protection. Risky move: Stepping into the street to walk around a construction shed. The shed is narrow for a reason. Stay inside it even if it's slower. Safe move: Stopping at the painted edge of a bike lane and looking left first. Exactly the routine that prevents the most common bike-lane collisions. Risky move: Stepping off the curb the moment the hand starts flashing. The flashing hand means do not start a new crossing. Wait for the next steady walker. Risky move: Crossing mid-block in dark clothing at night. You are nearly invisible. Walk to the lit corner and use the signal. Risky move: Crossing in front of a stopped school bus that still has its stop arm out. Kids are crossing or about to cross. Wait for the arm to retract. Safe move: Pausing before a turning SUV until the driver makes eye contact. Confirming the driver sees you is the single best habit at a corner. Risky move: Walking out from behind a tall SUV without leaning to look first. Drivers in the next lane can't see you and you can't see them — a classic blind-pull collision. Safe move: Looking both ways on a one-way street every single time. Covers the wrong-way cyclist, scooter, or driver you did not plan for. Watch the clip, then decide which of these reads is the safer call for pothole spotting. Let's slow this down and go through it one more time so it sticks. The three things you are doing every single time: Number 1: Look two strides ahead, not at your feet. ... Number 2: Step around potholes, not over them — the lip catches toes. ... Number 3: Use the smoother side of the crosswalk when you have a choice.. The three things you are refusing to do: Number 1: Walking through a crosswalk with eyes on your phone. ... Number 2: Stepping onto a temporary steel plate at full stride. ... Number 3: Assuming a puddle is shallow.. Say them back to yourself at the next curb. Repetition is how this becomes automatic. One more pass on why this matters. Trip-and-fall injuries in crosswalks are common — and they're worse because they happen with traffic about to move. In New York the block after the one you're on is already deciding whether you get home on time or not. This rule is how you stay ahead of it. Take a breath. Picture yourself at a Chinatown intersection thick with foot traffic. Run the rule in your head before you step off. If anything feels off — a driver looking down, a cyclist coming fast, a signal you cannot read — you wait. You are allowed to wait. The city will still be there in ten seconds. Build the muscle memory now so it's there when you need it.