My traffic rant: WATCH THE FUCK OUT FOR PEDESTRIANS!!!!

[Telly Savalas]

I'm beginnig to wonder if I've become invisible.

3 times in the last two days I've been pushing my daughter in a stroller across a crosswalk when some prick decides it's acceptable to plow right into us in order to make their precious fucking left turn happen a few seconds faster. Today was particularly close, and I'm still fuming. Even if someone is a complete self-centered asshole that has no regard for others, it should cross their mind that if they were to take out the stroller, but not hit me, it's either a felony hit and run and I've got their plate number, or they stay at the scene which will result in them spending the rest of their life in a fucking wheelchair.

So please excuse the fuck out of me if I don't think it's necessary to burn fossil fuels to go to the goddamn grocery store, but I still have a fucking right to our public spaces too.



:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

[tk2kewl]

1. In my younger days I was know to

walk right over the hoods of peoples cars who cut in front of me in the crosswalk.

[havocmom]

5. My brother STILL does that at almost 50.

He is 6'4" and about 250. Gets their attention.

[tk2kewl]

6. lol.. also when people in city traffic leaned on their horns

i used to walk up and politely tap on their window as if i wanted to ask directions. and then i would shout as loud as i could right into their ear, "STOP BLOWING YOUR HORN! IT'S HURTING MY EARS!"

[GumboYaYa]

2. That is just one example of why we need planning and zoning

laws that focus on pedestrians as wells as motorists. P&Z always requires traffic studies and traffic plans before approving a development. For once, I want to see some P&Z Board request a pedestrian study.

If they would build nice tree-lined sidewalks with clear and obvious pedestriab crossing lanes (or een pedestrian overpasses), I'm convinced more people would walk places. Now you take your life into your hands when you walk on may urban streets.

[LynzM]

9. I agree with that

Living in Europe, we walked everywhere, all the time. The cities were pedestrian friendly, and people (both cars and pedestrians, oh, and bikers, too) obeyed their respective sets of rules. You're right that trying to be a pedestrian most places in the U.S. is both dangerous and very inconvenient. Grrmph.

[Telly Savalas]

11. The 2 incidents yesterday were in a fairly pedestrain friendly area.

It was in the neighbourhood where I live and lots of people walk. No matter how pedestrian friendly you make a place, there's always going to be some dumbfuck who can't be bothered to pay attention.

Today's incident was on a 6 lane road up in the sprawlsville area where my wife works. It's a place that is in bad need of a Jane Jacobs makeover, but even still the peckerhead not only nearly hit me, but also came close to hitting a bus too. So again it's a driver that's a hopeless cause.

I'm totally with you that P&Z is key to making a place pedestrian friendly (and hence livable), but ultimately people need to pay attention when they get behind the wheel.

[havocmom]

3. I clobbered a guy's hood with my umbrella one afternoon cuz he almost

hit about 9 jr hi kids crossing (in a marked crosswalk, with the light) while he was busy looking to his left to see that traffic would allow him to turn right. How he could not hear the 9 kids was beyond me. The fact that he never even considered there might be pedestrians to look for really pissed me off. It was a marked school zone at 3:20 PM!

He did notice me whomp on his car with my folded bumbershoot. Got all hostile with me and STILL didn't notice the gaggle of kids in front of his car! The kids came to my defense and he simmered down.

I hear ya. It really shows just how completely egocentric too many people have become that they don't even consider the possibility there might be someone else on the pavement with them. I decided to get a bigger umbrella to make the point when some dolt forgets they are not alone in the universe.

[skygazer]

4. I always hating pushing a stroller when crossing streets

I always felt like I was shoving the baby out first to block for me or something.

Around here, people are mostly pretty good about pedestrians in crosswalks with some exceptions. I was really irritated one day a couple of weeks ago - I saw two young boys - maybe 10 or 11 - with skateboards waiting at a crosswalk ahead (on the opposite side of the road from me). The car ahead of me blew right past but I stopped for them. And then had to wait while no less than FIVE CARS continued driving past from the other direction! :wtf:

I was stopped, the boys were clearly in the crosswalk waiting to cross - all I can think of is that people figured they could get away with not stopping because they were kids with no adult with them. People bitch about kids misbehaving and being menaces - here were two kids doing exactly the right thing and no one would stop for them. I was livid. Hell, I'm still livid!

[Gormy Cuss]

13. I would like to see turn rules changed to prohibit

turning into a lane where pedestrians are CLEARLY waiting for traffic to stop so the peds can cross. I've tried to explain to the local traffic department that the walk light timing (4 feet per second) might be OK if pedestrians weren't cut off by turning cars. At some intersections here it is a rare day when one can step off the curb before the walk light becomes a flashing don't walk. The old folks try to run across when the flashing signal appears because in the old days, the 'walk' light stayed on for the length of time it took to cross the street and the flashing 'don't walk' meant RUN!

[Burma Jones]

Delete Dupe

[Burma Jones]

7. I spit on them

After I take a look and see that I can kick their ass if I have to.

[LeftyMom]

8. Somebody actually ran into the front wheel of LeftyKid's

jogging stroller once. LeftyDad kicked a big dent in their door, because they were oblivious old people in some Buick tank who didn't appear to have noticed us screaming at them to watch where they were going because they could've hurt our kid.

We used to walk and bike nearly everywhere and didn't have a car for the first two years of LK's life. Innumerable close calls, two bike-vs-car accidents, a squre foot or so of road rash and a broken collarbone later we gave up and got a fucking car. :mad:

I think part of the oblivoiusness is selfishmness, but part of it is class warfare. If you were important, you'd be in your car and in a hurry, too. Only the poor and the unimportant walk, you know. :sarcasm:

[chookie]

10. I hear you

You are correct in your assessment that these arrogant speeding assholes are a danger to you and your daughter. Sure, "accidents happen" but when drivers habitually engage in RISKY behaviors, accidents happen a hell of lot more frequently.

Yes, people are killed, or crippled, as the result of the driving behavior you describe. There is no enforcement of laws -- until some poor person, who has a lot of friends to advocate for them posthumously, is killed.

I myself was struck by a car in broad daylight, while I was wearing bright clothing -- and the asshole struck me TWICE! Mercifully this all happened in a parking lot at low speed, or I would have been dead. The asshole was tired after a night shift in a nursing home and was so out of it that she did not see me, and only heard me when I was screaming bloody murder banging on the hood of her car! I was a walking swollen hematoma for a month -- lucky me.

A peeve I wish to add to yours -- people who are lazy assholes about turning and cross into the opposite lane rather than put the effort into steering into the correct lane -- I HATE YOU! Some fuckhead very nearly made road pizza out of me -- again, broad daylight. I was crossing the fucking street, and was OVER into the "safe" lane, when fuckhead, turning left at the crossroad lazily, drove at frenzied speed into the opposing lane of traffic, where I thought I was "safe" from assholes making turns. He missed me by inches. It was only my SCREAMING in terror that alerted him to my brightly colored presence; he pulled by the side of the road, but then pulled away, probably because he has a long traffic violation record and didn't want to get in trouble again. A few people witnessed this terrifying incident and came to my aid, but what to do? The asshole was driving at a very high rate of speed, and if he had struck me, if I did not perish from extreme injuries, my body would have been shattered in a way that would have crippled me forever.

I take safe driving very seriously. I don't fancy flying through a windshield, nor do I fancy the idea of ever hurting another human being, or even an animal, through carelessness. It makes me FURIOUS to see people drive like assholes and risk injury to people. Fuck them. I don 't understand why, in the course of my life, it has become "cool" to drive aggressively and take crazy risks. I strongly advocate law enforcement against asshole drivers, especially those who risk the life and limb of pedestrians like yourself.

[Ekirh]

12. AT V.C.U

I've onced try to cross the cross walk only for a truck to not pay attention that I was walking across the street and just kept on going on it's merry way. . . I had to speed up my walking to not get hit by him.

Turns out the truck that almost hit me was a "pro-life" anti-abortion truck and they were getting ready to hand out flyers and such outside the campus (Not to mention posting pictures of aborted fetuses for everyone to see. I think they eventually got complained about and were removed).

I just remember them approaching me and me saying "You guys just almost ran me over. . . why the hell am I going to listen to what you have to say". They left me alone.

[MindPilot]

14. on the other hand...

I frequently encounter pedestrians who taunt drivers by crossing aginst the light, in the middle of street, or dawdle in the crosswalk long after the light has changed.

I'm not talking about an old lady balancing a load of groceries on her walker. These are healthy-looking adults who make eye contact, smirk and know they're holding up traffic.