My little sister walks home from school every day and puts her life at risk. On her way home she has to cross Gallivan Boulevard. There are always cars speeding down Gallivan Boulevard, sometimes going over sixty miles per hour. Many cars run red lights and act as if they are on the highway. Speeding causes many accidents and put pedestrians at risk. On Gallivan Boulevard, stoplights are spaced very far apart, forcing lots of pedestrians to jaywalk. My community, the people of Dorchester, want to protect values like safety and fairness. With cars speeding and many pedestrians jaywalking, this puts both of these values into a lot of risk.

Being a pedestrian on Gallivan Boulevard alone is dangerous. Just a few days ago my little sister came home in tears. She told me she heard a loud screech and turned around to see that twenty feet behind her a car swerved into the wrong lane, causing cars to crash onto the sidewalk. Luckily, she sprinted far away from the accident, but she could have been seriously injured. The even scarier part is that this is very normal for Gallivan Boulevard. I see a car accident happen on the boulevard almost every month, putting everyone's safety in my community at risk. Safety is when someone protects themselves or others from harm or fear. Moreover, many people are forced to jaywalk across Gallivan Boulevard because there is a large gap in between two crosswalks. One of the stoplights crosses Dorchester Avenue and the other stoplight is near Adams Street. They are about 0.4 miles away from each other. Due to this, pedestrians tend to jaywalk across Gallivan Blvd, usually near the train bridge. Along with safety, my community shares the value of fairness. Fairness is when we ensure everyone follows the same rules and receives the same opportunities. This causes fairness to be violated because we believe it is not fair that cars have more priority than pedestrians. People jaywalking makes the issue much more dangerous, because not only are the cars speeding and causing accidents, but cars are also not looking out for pedestrians and could possibly cause a tragedy. 

There are many possibilities for solving this issue, one of them being a new stoplight. We should add this stoplight in between the Dorchester Avenue and Adams Street stoplights. This will force the cars to slow down because they will be constantly stopping, therefore limit the amount of speeding and accidents. The stoplight will also limit the amount of pedestrian’s jaywalking because they won’t have to walk far for the next crosswalk. The solution protects the foundational democratic idea of the common good. The common good means doing what is best for everyone or the majority of the community. Adding a stoplight will protect the common good because it will help the majority. It benefits pedestrians because it adds a crosswalk, so they don’t have to jaywalk and drivers because it will reduce accidents and speeding. A stoplight will be the ideal solution to preventing speeding, jaywalking, and accidents because it protects my community’s shared values like safety and fairness, and protects the common good.