Hit it anyway.
I apparently give The Look to these people really well. To the point that I almost always get a sheepish apology from the driver.
It’s not punishment but at least they’re recognizing they were in the wrong.
Many years ago, I worked in downtown San Francisco ( Market St. ) where pedestrians were quite aggressive about asserting their rights when using a crosswalk. One day, heading out to lunch I was waiting at an intersection and some young stockbroker in his BMW pulled into it, forcing everyone to go around him. In front of me, a very small and very old oriental lady got to the BMW and gave the driver a dirty look and said a few words. The stockbroker responded by tapping his horn which did not go over well the old lady. The old lady took out her umbrella and began whacking the hood of the BMW and yelling at the guy in the BMW. The guy in the BMW responded by yelling at the old lady. Many in the crowd applauded the old lady.
After a few tense moments the confrontation ended and calm was restored. So should you encounter a douchebag blocking an intersection find some little old lady from San Francisco to fix things. 
It takes two to tango; our local pedestrian crowd has little respect for their side of the bargain- they jaywalk across streets in traffic, weaving between cars 20 feet from the un-obstructed crosswalk, because the bus stop is 20 feet from the intersection. They can’t be arsed to walk up and cross at the light. They cross at the crosswalk across GREEN lights… expecting all the traffic to come to a stop or seriously slow for them. They walk diagonally through intersections instead of using the crosswalks and making 90 degree turns. I could go on…
So I’ll start giving a shit about whether or not I’m stopped a foot or two into the crosswalk about the same time the pedestrians around me start using them, and using them correctly.
Man, this is great stuff. I bet applying this logic to other facets of life is a fantastic way to make the world a better place for oneself and others!
“I’ll start paying my taxes as soon as all those tax cheats do!”
“I’ll start being polite to the elderly as soon as all those punk kids do!”
“I’ll start stopping at red lights as soon as all those scofflaw cyclists do!”
“I’ll refrain from murdering people as soon as all those gangbangers do!”
Has it ever occurred to you that, by obstructing crosswalks, you are actively discouraging people in your area from using them? That, perhaps, bad behavior by others does not justify bad behavior on your part? That your duty to obey society’s rules while operating a 1.5 ton object with the potential to kill people if misused is not removed because–hey, a bunch of other people are being total jerks too! And I’m not about to let them hog all the fun of inconveniencing other people!
I am mostly blind. If it’s daylight and the sun isn’t in my face, I can usually see well enough to steer around cars stopped in the crosswalk. But I use a guide cane, so it’s pretty obvious that I have a severe visual impairment to outside observers, even if I can see a little. Many drivers in the situation will back up a little to get out of my way, or at least roll down their window to warn me as I approach (and apologize). The other ones…well, I just swing my cane a teensy bit harder than usual to make a good, loud sound when it taps their bumper. Gets the point across, does no real damage, and they sure as hell can’t accuse me of doing anything aggressive (passive-agressive, maybe). Not sure it really teaches them anything, but makes me feel better.
(FTR, I scrupulously avoid jaywalking–jaywalking and blindness is a potentially lethal combination.)
What I love is some youth walking across the street in the dark, dressed all in black, hoodie up, texting away, in the middle of the street- and they get mad when you honk. :rolleyes:
My point was that me parking a foot or so into the crosswalk is inconsequential considering that the vast majority of people in my area ignore them completely anyway, along with the traffic lights, walk/don’t walk signs and any other traffic or pedestrian-related signage or markings. And really… if I’m operating a 1.5 ton object with the potential to kill people, both of us have an obligation to stay out of each other’s way. Doing like people do in my neighborhood is far more unsafe than someone coming to a stop a little bit further than otherwise.
Part of the issue is that in many places, the crosswalks, stop-lines and what-not are put in places where if you stop short, you can’t see well enough to turn right. Nobody’s going to stop short and sit through the red light just becuase some pedestrian might wander up… that’s absurd. If there are people waiting to cross, sure, but otherwise, no.
A foot can be OK, sure, but some douchebags block the whole crosswalk.
In order to make a right on red I have to take my whole car through the crosswalk. If there’s no pedestrian traffic I’m going to enter the crosswalk and pull up as far as necessary to see oncoming traffic. That’s probably to the point the entire crosswalk is under my car.
If a pedestrian subsequently arrives at the curb they can choose to wait for me to turn, or they can walk behind my car and behind the crosswalk, or they can walk in front of my car and in front of the crosswalk. I think the first choice is the safest and the last is the least safe. I wouldn’t object to any pedestrian choosing any of the three though.
I drive, bike, and walk a lot. And walk in cities all over the country. We *can *all get along. But it takes flexibility and give and take.
Doctrinaire beliefs about sacrosanct spots on the pavement sound like 6th graders one-upping each other explaining some absolutist legal doctrine they read about in Social Studies. Cute, but childish and ultimately ineffectual.
I don’t think anyone here is complaining about drivers actively engaged in making a legal right on red, even if just waiting for a break in traffic. That’s legal, and normal, and safe. It’s those charming people who do it for no reason, or without yielding to pedestrians present, who inspired this thread and others like it.
Indeed. What I usually do is make sure they see me, so i don’t get accidentally run over, walk around the front of the car and touch the hood with my hand as I go by. People around here really hate to have their cars touched. Doesn’t hurt anything, but makes me feel better. I’ve had a few even yell at me not to touch their car. rather than engage with them, I just laugh long and hard. That makes them even madder, but not mad enough to abandon their car at an intersection. (So far, I’ll probably end up getting killed someday.)
As a followup to my previous post, I would like to share a blind guy pet peeve about crosswalks. It drives me absolutely batty when I am crossing on the left side of an intersection (with the pedestrian signal/green light and in the crosswalk), and, while I am still crossing the near lane, a car makes a left turn in front of me. This may be legal, since I haven’t started to cross the left-bound lanes yet, and (relatively) safe, since I’m not that fast a walker, but it is really disconcerting. I have zero peripheral vision, so I am usually trying to keep my eyes on the terminus of the crosswalk on the other side of the street to avoid wandering off the safe path. So I don’t see the car until it cuts across my field of vision. At that point, I can’t really tell how far away it is, so it’s startling in the extreme. Even if I couldn’t see them at all, the sound of a car crossing one’s path unexpectedly is unpleasant.
Drivers, please don’t make a left turn across the path of a blind person, even if you have plenty of room. Not nice.
For those that either initiate or encourage contact with the vehicle, or engagement with the driver, is it something you’re willing to die over?
The driver is at most committing a moving violation - the escalation is assualt. If I saw that happening and I was on the jury where the car inadvertently impacted the person, I’d vote to acquit the driver.
Inadvertently? Really? You think it would just be the driver’s foot ‘happened’ to slip off the brake and onto the accelerator? Seriously? Lord hope you’re never on a jury about anything.