Being short (5 feet tall) can have lots of disadvantages. You can’t reach things high up in your own cupboard. Items displayed on the top shelf at the grocery store are often just inches away from your grasp. You can’t control the gas or brake pedal in the car unless the seat is far forward. If you’re standing in a crowd and not in the front row, you can’t see what’s going on.

Our latest pet peeve has to do with visibility while driving. We don’t think it’s just really short folks who have this problem. Almost daily, we pull out of a parking lot, side road or driveway only to find our line of vision blocked by hedges, flowers or signs, which, in our opinion, have been placed with very little forethought. Don’t folks think about visibility issues when they plant shrubs or erect signs? Don’t they notice that a motorist often has to get half way out into the road before they can see oncoming traffic?

It’s not just businesses that are guilty of obstructing views. Public works departments, both local and state, are sometimes responsible, too, as are many homeowners. You don’t have to go very far from home to find a location where visibility is poor.

“Now who would plant flowers in that particular spot?”

“Of all the places to put that sign, why there?”

“Didn’t the folks who planted that tree years ago realize what would happen when it grew?”

“That sign may work great for its owner, but it’s not doing much for the guy next door, whose customers have to take their life in their hands to get out of the parking lot.”

Granted some of the signs, hedges, shrubs, trees, flowers, etc. that block our view may pose no problem for the guy who’s 6 feet tall, or who is driving a pick-up truck much higher off the ground with better visibility.

However, we think there are plenty of motorists who do have trouble seeing around these obstacles and are forced to take chances time after time. While most of us can’t do much about many of them personally, we can point them out to local and state road crews and to law enforcement since they are in a position to bring pressure to bear on some landowners or businesses to correct potentially dangerous situations. Sometimes, just a little pruning would make a big difference.

We’d hate to think our only options are to start driving a pick-up truck or growing a little bit taller. Then again, we could always find a chauffeur or just plain stay home.