Bad drivers & pedestrians

[scottcsmith]

How bad is it for pedestrians to cross streets where you live? I live in a suburb of Portland called Beaverton (no beavers, but my condo has a wetland and we have a bunch of nutria), and peds take their lives into their hands when they cross the street. Hardly anyone stops to let the pedestrian cross. Here's how bad it is: I was behind a couple of cars to make a right turn. There was a blind man making his way across the street, tapping ahead with his cane, and I swear to god a car came screeching around the corner and passed within inches of the blind man.

That's one of the reasons I never walk anywhere.

[omshanti]

1. At the UNC hospitals, I got given the finger for being on the crosswalk

The person had plenty of time to stop, but sped up, screeched to a halt inches before me, honked the horn, gave me the finger, and proceeded to curse me out.

I yelled "I'm on a FUCKING CROSSWALK IN FRONT OF A FUCKING HOSPITAL MORON!! HIT ME AND I'LL SUE YOUR SORRY ASS!"
Then proceeded to very slowly walk across the crosswalk.

I can't believe how rude people are sometimes.

edited to mention that this idiot ran a stop sign in his eagerness to get to the crosswalk and cuss me out.
MORON.

[adriennel]

2. Ann Arbor, MI

We had a horrible incident a couple of weeks ago, two women were killed while attempting to cross the street where I work. (I was not there at the time). As the two women were leaving the Islamic Center at night, they were struck and killed by a pick-up truck. It was deemed an accident. The two women were students from Malaysia and their deaths created a lot of sadness here and elsewhere.

The problem here is there is no pedestrian crosswalk for a couple of miles on this extremely busy road. And part of the University's Campus is located off this busy road, so there is a lot of foot traffic. After this latest incident, the city began work on a new traffic signal. However, there was some squabbling because people didn't want to pay $100,000 to install said new traffic signal. And this is after two lives were lost! arg

it's bad here since we are a college town and the college is very intertwined with the city of Ann Arbor. I have seen many more bike/car accidents than I care to remember.

[gobblemy]

4. Why do I see this same story on every board?

I swear I have heard this same story on other boards. Has anyone else?

[adriennel]

6. hmmm

I read about it in the local newspapers. Haven't seen it on any boards.

[omshanti]

8. It's a true story - my parents still live in Malaysia

My parents called and told me about it when it happened - they were all freaked out.
Here's a link to a follow-up story on the Utusan Malaysia (one of Malaysia's leading newspapers) website
http://www.utusan.com.my/utusan/content.asp?y=2003&dt=1122&pub=Utusan_Express&sec=Home_News&pg=hn_04.htm

On an unrelated note, a Post-doc from China was killed on a crosswalk at University of North Carolina, about 3 years ago. (not the same crosswalk where I was given the finger, but close by).

[jobycom]

3. Here it's more like drivers and bad pedestrians

Here in Austin, pedestrians are dumb. They step off curbs without looking into the middle of a road, not at crosswalks. They walk diagonally across streets to maximize how much time they are in the way. They walk down the center of parking lot lanes so no one can go by. They stop and talk in the middle of thoroughfares.

I think it's because of the number of students. At the university, that type of behavior is okay, because all the roads are geared more for pedestrains, and cars expect to have to stop. But people do it in the middle of town, in the suburbs, along busy streets. It's a wonder the fatality rate is so low.

At times I feel like going Darwin on them, but no, I don't.

And yes, I do walk a lot, too, and I don't step in front of moving traffic, and I look both ways. I'm not a grumpy driver. I've never seen anyplace else like this.

[Castilleja]

7. Those people have relatives here in...

Corpus. I live by a fairly busy 5 lane road which includes student drivers (near a school), people coming in an out of a busy shopping center on both sides of the street. There are two crosswalks relatively close together, but no one seems to want to use them. At the school, students will dash across 10 to 20 feet away from the crosswalk to get to a Sonic. :shrug:

And, at a bus stop a little ways down, when the bus lets off people, they will stream across sometimes with little kids and all out in the middle of this mess to get to Walmart, gas station, etc. They don't look, they hang out in the center lane (where everyone loves to drive till they can shoot into the traffic lane). All the while ignoring the crosswalk just a little bit away from them.

I have always been amazed no one got run ove. Well, the lucky streak just ended for a poor young woman walking across early in the morning. A car stopped for her to go, and she was then hit by another car, and killed instantly. Very sad... Use the crosswalks people, at least motorists expect to see you there.

[Tempest]

5. Favorite sport in Bakersfield

It seems the favorite sport in Bakersfield is to see how many kids and old people you can hit in a crosswalk.

There's an average of 3 to 4 hit every week. Mostly kids are hit.