Fair warning, crazy hippie rant incoming! So Im walking today, approaching a crosswalk at a 2-way stop, and a lady pulls right past the stop line, into the crosswalk and stops, directly in front of me. I continue walking, slightly into the crosswalk until her car blocks me. Quick note for those that dont walk in urban areas a lot: many drivers think a pedestrian can just cross in front of or behind them if they stop in the crosswalk. This is not the case. Some people will, but if you walk enough youll learn not to. When a car is far enough forward (which they nearly always are; if they breach the crosswalk they almost always go as far forward as they can without impacting cross-traffic), crossing in front puts YOU in cross traffic. Crossing behind hides you from people turning onto the street, and at a full car length back, those guys are already accelerating. Ive almost been hit both ways, and Im damn well not doing it anymore. So I walk directly up to her door (which is in the center of the crosswalk, and just stop there, giving her a mildly annoyed (seriously, just mildly annoyed; this happens probably 10 times a day, I dont have the strength of will to be any more than mildly annoyed). She stays stopped there for nearly a minute until cross traffic clears, then moves forward. I move on as soon as she partway clears the crosswalk, and she immediately stops (now partway in both the lane AND the crosswalk - great job lady!) so she can roll down her window and yell at me as I pass a very sarcastic, Im SO SORRY to have delayed you so terribly. I should have just gone without being able to see traffic, and as I start to respond (I dont expect you to go, but to actually stop at the stop line.), she punches the gas, spinning her tires and throwing loose gravel at me (since Im partway behind the car at this point). Ok, I know US culture and civil engineering impacts our perspective on these things, and probably half the drivers on the road (if not more) pull this exact maneuver (not the peelout, but the crosswalk block) and feel 100% justified. And thats unlikely to ever change. But goddammit, dont get all rage-y when I give you a slightly annoyed look as a result of a blatant and uncaring breach of the law that further exacerbates the already serious de-prioritization of pedestrians in our neighborhoods. You are operating a machine that is responsible for over 30,000 deaths a year in our country alone. It requires a little bit of attention, care, and skill to operate safely. Next time maybe Ill try this maneuver :) https://youtube/watch?v=G6FqvKVh4Ro
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 21:17:44 +0000
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