Another (tepid) Pitting of Inconsiderate Drivers

On my morning city commute I take a main road, 3 lanes wide, to get to the freeway. Facebook is now picking up workers in huge monstrosity luxury buses to pool them to work. Nice idea, but the bus stops on this main street and blocks the right lane — traffic is jammed because of it. Inconsiderate! Can’t they find a better place to pick up ~25 workers than there?

As I drive through San Francisco downtown city streets, many Uber and Lyft drivers will stop in the lane, they won’t even pull right to pick up / drop off riders. Inconsiderate!

Please, people, share the road!

A tepid pitting, but drivers please be considerate.

I often wish I had one of these, so I can simply shove them out of the way without worrying about damage to my own car.

As a confirmed pedestrian, I sometimes think I should carry an air horn with me. One day last fall I cut through the bank parking lot across the street from my house as I often do. It was a Saturday, after banking hours and there was only one car in the lot. It was parked facing the street, just in front of the sidewalk.

As I started to cross the lot, the driver came from the ATM and got in the car and started backing up. Fast. And much farther than he needed, considering that the exit was right next to the spot he’d been in. Like, clear across the aisle and most of the way into the parking spot behind him. He stopped when his rear passenger tire was even with me. I could have reached out and touched the side.

I’m slow. I use a cane. It’s not like I could have jumped out of the way if he suddenly decided to turn the steering wheel. I was thinking, “Did he intentionally back that close to me just to give me a scare?”

His rear window was open so as he prepared to move forward again, I called out, “Hello!” He turned his head, a look of mild surprise on his face. OK, he was just operating heavy machinery while clueless. Always a good combination.

“You almost hit me,” I added, though I think that possibility was starting to dawn on him.

“I have a back-up camera,” he said to cover his embarrassment. I muttered an “OK” or something and went on my way. Thinking, “You might try looking at the monitor, then.”

Maybe the guy had just found out his bank account had been drained or somehow didn’t contain as much money as he’d expected and his mind was on that. But I’m glad that I’m always wary of the cars around me and cut a wide berth around any that might do something unexpected. If I’d cut behind that car as close as a lot of people do, I would have been toast.

If you were behind me, i’d want to get out of your way :cool: