Picture this: southern California is consumed by smog, yet the sun manages to shine through the dingy atmosphere.

The breeze is pleasant and gas is $5 a gallon, so you decide to get some exercise while saving the Earth by walking to work.

Then suddenly you’ve been run over by a crazy driver who’s in an excessive hurry.

Now, considering you fulfilled the pedestrian duties of looking both ways and not jumping out in front of the car at the last second, this driver who killed you is a huge jerk.

However, there are some motorist road hogs who would disagree.

Maybe they assume the giant asphalt megalopolis that is Southern California entitles them to the right of way, but this simply isn’t the case.

According to the California Department of Motor Vehicles, “the driver of a vehicle approaching a pedestrian within any marked or unmarked crosswalk shall exercise all due care and shall reduce the speed of the vehicle. to safeguard the safety of the pedestrian.”

To clarify, drivers aren’t allowed to mow down people in their way.

Overpopulation is definitely a problem affecting the world, but having cars run over pedestrians doesn’t seem like the best solution, and the DMV realizes this.

The 10 seconds that drivers forfeit when allowing a pedestrian to cross their path is nothing in comparison to the time it takes trekking somewhere on foot.

The counter-argument is that driving past the pedestrian saves both people time.

Yet imagine if every driver had this mentality and blocked those on foot with an endless string of cars as each motorist thinks, “I’ll just slip by and get right out of that jogger’s way.”

Yes, it can be annoying to wait for the poor grandma with her walker as she slowly lugs that bag of groceries to the other side of the street.

But try turning that annoyance into being thankful for getting to roll around town while enjoying the car’s radio, air conditioning and various safety features, while pedestrians in the sweltering summer heat are far more vulnerable.

Hit the breaks and allow that person on foot to cross the street. It’s the law.