I walk to work almost everyday. Everyday some clown driving his or her car stops in the middle of the crosswalk or completely in it. There are two main offenders.
Offender A does a rolling stop at the red light or stop sign while looking southbound to see if s/he can turn northbound onto intersecting street.
Offender B stops his or her car in the crosswalk with plenty of warning that s/he is approaching a red light.
Offender A, stop this madness! The crosswalk is there for a reason. So I can cross the street when I have the right-of-way without being struck by your vehicle! If the light is red and you want to make a right turn onto a one-way street, stop at the crosswalk first, then proceed, dammit! You can’t see me crossing the street or about to cross the street if you approach the intersection looking to see if any cars are coming so you can turn.
Offender B, stop this madness! This is just rude, rude, rude! If you’re stuck in the crosswalk when the light turns red, I can dig. But when you purposely stop in the crosswalk, you’re being an assmonkey. And being an assmonkey is not cool.
So, please, stop at the crosswalk so I don’t have to reach through your open window, grab you by the back of your neck and shove your head into your dashboard repeatedly, until blood is drawn. Thanks ever so much
I despise Offender A, if only because of the times I’ve nearly been run over in those exact circumstances. It doesn’t help that by constantly looking over their left shoulder while making a right turn, they’re not even looking where they’re going.
Offender B, I have a bit more patience with these days. When I lived in Vancouver that sort of thing pissed me off to no end, but in Pasadena I encountered drivers polite enough to back up out of the crosswalk when they got caught by a red light and no one was behind them. Incidents like that gave me hope for the species.
(Of course now I live in Princeton, where apparently it’s every man, woman, car, and bicycle for itself and I take my life into my hands every time I cross the street at designated cross-walks. Oh well.)
A-bloody-men! I have the same experience multiple times daily… About the only thing that annoys me more is when I’m waiting to cross the nice busy road (3 lanes each way, in rush hour), finally get the walk light, take two steps off the curb, and nearly get run over by some asshole who hasn’t bothered to check if there’s a pedestrian in the road before starting his right turn. It’s because of Offender A that I have taken to running across the road at the first break in traffic, crosswalks be damned.
One of these days, though, I’m going to time things just right, have Offender A hit me hard enough to do minor but not painful damage, sue his ass, and retire. Hey, a guy can dream, right?
I encounter Offender A all to frequently in the neighborhood where I work. I blame all the one-way streets around here. I shouldn’t have to watch for vehicles departing a garage but I’ve had too many close calls not to. Depending on my mood, I’ll just shake my head, give 'em the finger, or hit 'em with a verbal barrage. One time I did the barrage, my target was some jerk in a blue station wagon exiting the garage at Crystal Park I but I’m sure a fellow pedestiran up the street thought I was yellling at him to look both ways. When I do yell, most of the time it’s “Thanks for not hitting me!”
I’ve also encountered Offender C: jerks stop in the middle of the intersection to lecture me on how to cross the street. One of these jerks seemed to be under the mistaken impression that “Don’t Walk” goes into effect as soon as it starts flashing. What the fuck was I supposed to do? Stop crossing in the middle of the street?
Another Offender C stopped in front of me while I was in a crosswalk at a flashing red light. That one didn’t even bother to roll down his window so I have no idea what the hell he was saying but he sure was agitated about something.
I am an extremely aggressive pedestrian and as far as I am concerned any car in the ped walk is fair game for thumping, kicking, slapping, and so forth. Its fun when they drive off blaring their horns as if it means something to me at that point.
I’ve been “sorta hit” by right-turn-on-red types a couple of times. Its interesting to see what the raction is when you land flat on their hood with you hole body weight. Do it right and you not hurt, but the hood might be. Serves them right.
Okay, you guys think it’s ridiculous where YOU live?? Welcome to Montreal. In Quebec, turning right on a red light is ILLEGAL. Doing ANYTHING but stopping when confronted with a red light is ILLEGAL. Nevertheless, for no other reason than impatience, they drive halfway into the intersection. This means that I have to walk in FRONT of SPEEDING CARS to cross the street on a WALK SIGNAL. People are always amazed at how often Montrealers jaywalk. I’m certain that most jaywalkers think the same thing I do: It’s probably safer than using a crosswalk.
Well, it only happened once this morning but this time the broad was exiting a garage. If I hadn’t stepped back onto the curb, she would have stuck me for sure. The funny thing is, I don’t think she ever even saw me! She was looking over her left shoulder the entire time until she turned.
What always killed me was when I’d be waiting to cross a street, and offender B would pull up so far that his headlights would be out of the freaking crosswalk. He would then invariably motion me to cross the street in front of him. This was a way of life at stop signs on campus, and I always made a point of walking the lenth of the hood, crossing the car, walking down the side of the car to the crosswalk, and then crossing the street. I think the point was lost on most of them, but you should have seen their faces as I approached their door returning to the crosswalk.
The only car that ever hit me was stopping in the crosswalk. Fortunately, it was only going about 5 mph, and I wasn’t really hurt. When I screamed “You asshole” at said driver, she screamed “The sun got in my eyes. That doesn’t make me an asshole.” It escalated from there, and someone called the cops who took us in. I didn’t press charges.
My house is located on a corner at the top of a little sloped street. People ease into the crosswalk to see the main road, then motion you to cross. Like I’m going to cross in front of a car that parks in the crosswalk.
Once I started to cross in the crosswalk and a car pulled in with a screech, damn near giving me a heart attack, and the driver started a screaming conversation with someone across the street. I backed up a little bit, then stood in front of the car for five minutes, doing a little dance about crossing the street but never actually getting there. Such horn honking and language from the young lady driving.
What I hate most is when a big fucking delivery truck stops in the crosswalk, so now I can’t see if the sign is “Walk” or flashing “Don’t Walk,” so I can’t judge how much time I have to get across the street. Then they get mad at me because I’m walking in front of them when the light turns green.
I, too, am a pedestrian often faced with these fuckwits. What I don’t understand is why they think because they’re in a big metal box it gives them the right to plow through anything or stop their car wherever? Maybe it’s because I don’t drive that I don’t understand. I have been almost run over so many times that they’re nearly all a blur. One time it was a great big semi at a very busy intersection, and it was right by the subway station, so there were a lot of people trying to cross the street. One of the crossers was a woman with a double baby carriage. The semi stopped BEYOND the crosswalk so we all had to walk IN TRAFFIC in front of it to get across the street.
I’ve taken to banging on the passenger side window, screaming “CROSSWALK!!!” at them, and glaring as I walk in front of (or behind, if they’re past the crosswalk) them. I hate it that they’re always looking the opposite way and don’t pay any attention to people who might be walking from the direction in which they want to turn. Ugh. and usually there’s nobody behind them, and they don’t even back up.
I’ve seen crosswalk squatters get spat on too… hard to feel bad for them though when there’s several hundred people trying to cross at one intersection in five minutes (this is at my high school, where there were two campuses across the street from each other).
Ooh, I hate those, and especially the ones that roll down their windows and laugh as loud as they possibly can. Of course, the goal of driving is to hit as many pedestrians as possible. What was I thinking before, that people were trying to get somewhere or something? :smack:
I constantly see the same problem on my bus ride to work, just about every morning. At on intersection the bus has to turn left. And there is always some jerk who ignores the white stripes on the road. The bus has to stop and either wait for the idiot to move ahead or back up so the bus can complete its turn. And almost every time the driver has a nasty look on their face for being so inconvenienced by the “damn bus”. I would love to see the bus keep going, scratch up the car, with no penalty to the bus or city. Maybe that would teach them not to pull up so far.
A number of times I’ve opend the back passenger door of the car and climbed in, much to the surprise/anger/annoyance of the driver. Then I slide on over and exit through the other door.
Oh yeah, I leave both doors open so fuckknuckle has to get out and close them.
Oh, these people really get me. Maybe because I am a stay-at-home mom with no car, so when I go walking it is with two preschoolers and a baby carriage. The last fucker was some teenaged bitch and her little friends in a big pickup who pulled way out into the crosswalk where I would have had to lead my children into traffic in order to cross. I stood right next to her car and gave her the dirtiest mom-look I could muster until she backed up.
When I used to drive I was familiar with yet another crosswalk asshole. Offender D is a jerk in a large truck who first pulls up into the crosswalk and then begins inching forward, making it totally impossible to see if it is safe to make a right turn. No matter how far you pull up, he matches or beats you. Listen fuckwit, inching into the intersection at a red light will not get you where you are going faster.
Oh, and on a totally unrelated side note, a message to my neighbors: It is nearly 10 PM. Take you snobby screaming little brats inside! What the hell kind of parents let their kids run screaming through the neighborhood at this hour every freaking night?!?
