You know, when I’m trying to turn right onto a busy road? And I’m studiously looking left, to see if the way has cleared, and I’m glancing right but predominantly I’m looking left?
Well, it’s really **stupid ** to walk in front of my car at this point. I realize I am in the car and you are walking, and it’s my responsibility to watch out for you. However, for your own sake, it might be prudent to
a) go around behind me, I drive a Corolla, it’s 15 extra steps,
b) kind of glance ahead and judge the traffic: is the traffic clear? Does this person look like she’s going to turn?
It’s never a good idea to step in front of me without looking, you nimrod!
And I won’t swear just because it’s the Pit. I’m not nearly irritated enough to swear. Just mildly peeved.
Sorry, the pedestrian’s got the right of way. Particularly in a crosswalk, when the little white man is all lit up.
At least you bothered to notice that the person was there. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve been walking in the crosswalk during MY RIGHT OF WAY and someone tried to turn right without bothering to see if a pedestrian was there. That’s why you’re supposed to look BOTH DIRECTIONS before turning.
My boyfriend actually got hit by a truck last year when said truck turned right into him when he was in the crosswalk. Truck driver never bothered to look right before turning right.
Uh, no. You got some nerve there, pointing out correctly that “I realize I am in the car and you are walking, and it’s my responsibility to watch out for you.”, and then suggest that if you hit a pedestrian that they are somehow responsible.
If your suggestion were a general safety statement (i.e. “you never know what kind of lunatics drive cars; treat them as lunatics and stay safe”), then it would be fine. But as you were talking about you behind the wheel, you really need to reconsider where you point this pitting.
I’m assuming that earlier today you almost injured someone and now have come here to complain about them. Perhaps they have an opinion on this matter; I know I would if you had told me to walk behind you so you don’t have to pay attention to the road.
Sorry, I’ve got to put another vote in for the OP being wrong. It is 100% your job as a driver to make sure there’s no one coming from the right before you turn. If that means you miss your hole and have to wait longer to turn, so be it.
I mean, I understand where you’re coming from in terms of pedestrians who assume way too much awareness on the part of drivers they’re walking in front of. I personally tend to be more cautious when I’m a pedestrian, just because I know how bad some drivers are. But you’re not allowed to rant about them when you’re the driver in question, since it’s your responsibility not to hit them in the first place.
Did it ever possibly occur to you that you happen to be in a one ton death machine, while the pedestrian has no protection whatsoever??
If you can’t look both ways before making a turn- especially if you’re at a red light where you DON’T have the right-of-way, maybe you shouldn’t be driving at all.
Around here, failure to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk when the little white man is all lit up can result in the driver being hit with a $500 fine.
I’ve never disagreed more with an OP. There’s absolutely no excuse whatsoever for not looking into the crosswalk. Try that in San Francisco and you’ll get a $500 ticket at best, and a throng of pedestrians beating the crap out of your hood at worst.
“Go around behind me” - you have got to be kidding me.
Don’t take this personally, because all I’m doing is taking advantage of the Pit environment when I say:
You @#%-@#%er, you’re in a fucking car with air conditioning blasting or heating toasting you, depending on the weather, while I’m out here on foot, braving idiots like you so I can get to fucking work or the store or just out getting some fucking exercise, and you can’t wait a fucking ten seconds more to let me cross the street where I HAVE THE FUCKING RIGHT OF WAY you @#% @#% er!
I suppose you’re never a pedestrian? You just park your car and then levitate into the building!?!? You’re lucky I don’t fucking walk ON your car if you leave it in the middle of the fucking crosswalk while you wait for your break in traffic so you can get where you’re going FIVE FULL SECONDs earlier than if you waited on me like someone with a fucking SOUL would do!! And then when you get there five seconds earlier, you sit in your fucking car so you can hear the end of the song you like, you @#$%er!
I really need the adrenaline rush of a solid ton of metal and plastic bearing down on me at 35 miles an hour! Because I’m such an asshole, daring to WALK or RIDE my bike in the vicinity of your car.
I’ve been hit twice in crosswalks by cars whose drivers were waiting to turn right on red. The first time, I escaped with a bruised knee. The second time, one of the front tires ripped the toenail off my left big toe (I was wearing sandals).
The thing is, as a pedestrian, you can’t always second-guess the driver. The first time, I thought I was safe, but the driver apparently thought he could make it into the traffic gap. The second time, the guy just wasn’t looking and let his SUV roll forward.
Have we met? Cuz you must have been one of the drivers who damn near bounced me off their fenders in the middle of a crosswalk when I had a green light and a walk sign.
Or perhaps you were the one who came within an inch of hitting the guy in crutches who crossed just before me one day.
The driver is supposed to yield to the pedestrian whether they’re right turning on red as the pedestrian uses the crosswalk on the street the driver is turning from, and when the driver has a green and the pedestrian has a walk signal on the street the driver is turning onto.
No matter how you slice it, pedestrians always have the right of way. It’s always the driver’s responsibility to look for them. It’s also illegal for them to cross behind your car, outside the crosswalk. While it’s a good idea as a pedestrian to pay attention to what the drivers are doing, because many of them have their heads up their asses, it is never acceptable for a driver to expect and insist that the pedestrians get the hell out of the way.
I once had a driver nearly hit me as I crossed a street, in the crosswalk, with a walk signal. This driver leaned out of her window and yelled at me ‘Watch it. Yo behind ain’t got no bumpers.’
I yelled back ‘No, but it does have a lawyer.’ Not that I’d want to get hit, but she was clearly wrong. So is the OP.
Maybe in Greece, cars have the right of way, and hitting a pedestrian is ok, as long as you were looking the other way a the time. I’ve never been there, so I wouldn’t know.
But here where the OP and I live, pedestrians have the right of way. At an intersection, if a car and a human collide, and the human isn’t doing anything wrong like walking against a red light or something, it’s the car’s fault.
I’m shocked to hear things are different where you are, and I suspect you’re mistaken. You may want to read up on your local driving laws.
To be fare the OP doesn’t say the pedestrian wasn’t crossing against a Don’t Walk sign, or jay walking. If the pedestrian is abiding by the law, then it is always the drivers responsability to give way to a pedestrian.
In Europe this isn’t so widely accepted, and drivers will often push, intimidate pedestrians who are in the way. Even sometimes when the pedestian has the equivalent of a Green WALK light, ( Glaring at Paris: France ).