Walking towards the grocery store tonight between the parked cars area and the area where people drive in front of the store, I let one car go past me. I figured the next car was far enough away that I could make it through. It’s a parking lot, tons of people walk through that place every day to get to the entrance of the store. Imagine that!
Mr. Asshole In the MiniVan decides to gun it. When he (duh) finally figures I am actually walking to my destination, the front of the grocery store, he slams on his breaks.
I look at him and kind of shake my head in disgust waving at him to go on thinking: “Um asshole you are in a highly trafficed area for pedestrians. This is an area you are expected to give me the right-of-way, in fact you are expected to give me the right-of-way everywhere to pedestrians. My body versus your snot-nosed-kid-carrying crap-mobile usually means you will win.”
So Mr. Mini Van, remember the very obviously harsh words I said “fuck you” and thinking: “the next time your wife and children are walking through a similar parking lot…” A vehicle usually wins against the human body.
If your kid dies because of careless people like you, don’t cry to me because your careless habits are just like that guy who hit your kid. You fucking low-life loser with nothing more on his mind than getting laid by his wife once a week when she’s not in exercise class or puking in the toilet because she ate a whole carrot.
Anthacrite (Una) if I weren’t pre occupied I woulda opened the door and yelled at him directly…I wasn’t in that mode.
Been known to do shit like that though, usually while drinking heavily…not a beer around but still.
Anyhow, I hope I taught the asshole a lesson in parking lot know-how.
I must admit that most of the assholes, stupid drivers, dumbasses on the roads, 7 times out of 10 it’s a mini van driver. No offense to the mini van drivers on the boards but I am serious.
Well, I survived, I lived and the asshole went home to his anorexic wife to tell of the chick in the Broncos hat that cussed him out.
Not in California, he’s not. Please peruse the following link for the pedestrian’s rights and duties in this lovely State: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=veh&group=21001-22000&file=21949-21971. Please pay close attention to Section 21954. If someone’s jaywalking (as I did when I got hit and cited years ago), he’s at fault. Pedestrians do not “always have the right of way.”
If I’m a pedestrian, I assume every car is driven by a maniac like that minivan driver, who will not yield to me, and I let them go first.
If I’m a driver, I assume every pedestrian’s a maniac who’ll jump out in front of me, and since they also have the right of way (generally) I let them go first.
This is the least-effort solution - no one gets hit, no matter who would be at fault.
I realize that if everyone did this, no one would move- the pedestrian and the vehicle would both sit there, waiting for the other to go first, but (un)fortunately, no else seems to do it but me.
Monty, check out subsection 21954b. A pedestrian crossing at a non-crosswalk is supposed to yield the right-of-way, yes, but the driver is still at fault if he hits a pedestrian who fails to do so.
Unless the law in Colorado has changed (I doubt it has) so pbbbbt on you, I don’t live in California, I wasn’t walking or talking in California. I was talking about my situation last night here in the city I live in, in front of a God Damned grocery store.
If I could find the specific law I would post it. I just got up from a nap, I am cranky and not in da mood to look it up…
Oh and I was in the very front of the store. In my definition of time, I gave myself more than enough time to safely cross the area of concern. Mr. Mini Van gunned his POS in a highly pedestrian traffic area. Regardless if he hit me or not, he was in the wrong.
Related story from the other side of the windshield:
I was driving on a fairly busy road, around noon. On the sidewalk, coming up, is a kid (teenager) on one of those motorized scooters, with headphones on. At the cross street, he zipped down the sloped thing, (without ever looking!) and right out in front of me. I had been keeping an eye on him, and had suspected he might do something like that and was able to stop in time, but I did blow the horn. He looked up at me and yelled, “Watch out! I have the right of way, I’m a pedestrian!!”
Uh, no, you’re not, and I bet that thing is not legal to ride in the road, and you have headphones on and you never looked. Yeah, if I had hit him it probably would have been considered my fault, but it was HIS fault!
I really hate the kids on those motorized scooters.
I think I am going to go out and get a bunch of copies of my son in his body cast and all the road rash from being hit by a car in a parking lot.
When he was still in his cast and it was still fresh in my mind, I actually pulled over once and made a group of boys who were riding in the middle of the street not paying any attention, come to my van and look at my son in his cast.
I told them that sometimes cars just don’t see little people and to please be more carefull because I would hate for their mommies to go thru what I was.
I have also run after cars speeding in parks and by schools.
And for those of you keeping track after a year (this May) the woman still has not been held accountable for anything.
No license, no insurance, and now expired plates. Never turned in her accident report either which is a big fine and never to register a car in Iowa again. All because it was in a parking lot.
Well, apparently, the law has either (a) changed in at least El Paso County, Colorado, or (b) never was as you stated it above.
Please peruse http://www.co.el-paso.co.us/sheriff/Mdltrfcode.htm and pay particular attention to the fact that the County’s Vehicle Code states fairly well that the motor vehicle operator shall yield the right of way to a pedestrian lawfully within the intersection.
Well, since the specific laws appear to be county ordinances, I’d venture to say that either (a) you looked up the wrong search string (hey, it happens - no big deal), or (b) you didn’t look up a thing before stating something you didn’t know if it was correct or not (it happens - it is a big deal).
Hey, I’m with you on that. It’s fairly obvious to anyone with a brain (obviously excluding someone who drives a vehicle in a store parking lot at high speed) that there will be pedestrians both in front of the store and among the parked vehicles. I’d also state that it’s fairly obvious to any pedestrian with a brain that a parking lot has moving vehicles in it, some of said vehicles being driven by complete morons. That’s why I look both ways before venturing into the crosswalk in front of the stores here. An aside: I’ve often thought of holding a placard that says, “If you run me down, I won’t be able to move my car out of a space for yours!”
Sheesh on yourself, friend. You bolstered your case with an incorrect assertion. While I agree that the Urban Assault Vehicle driver was, and no doubt still is a complete moron and was driving his vehicle in an unsafe manner, I take exception to the oft-repeated myth that “the pedestrian always has the right of way.”
