Rant: Why are so many people walking on the WRONG side of the road?

[bcp]

Let nature sort them out. That's how evolution works, ya know.

Yeah sort of, but killing a pedestrian often ruins the driver's life too. That doesn't figure well in evolution theory.

Evolution doesn't work by killing the old ones, either.

Bruce

 

[dragoneggs]

I continue to be amazed... and more and more of how many pedestrians walk totally unaware through parking lots, etc. without a clue that they could get hit. Total lack of regard for their surroundings. Sad thing is they deserve to get hit... but if they do, it will be **** to pay for the driver... fault or not.

 

[Sodo]

Evolution doesn't work by killing the old ones, either.

Bruce

Nor the dumb ones after they've procreated.

 

[coobie]

I continue to be amazed... and more and more of how many pedestrians walk totally unaware through parking lots, etc. without a clue that they could get hit. Total lack of regard for their surroundings. Sad thing is they deserve to get hit... but if they do, it will be **** to pay for the driver... fault or not.

Better yet the parents who let the small kids run threw parking lots with no control.What the H-LL is up with that?Don,t they care or see how many idiot drivers speed up and down the rows looking for a parking space?Or how about they senior citizen backing out of a parking space that might not see your unattended child?

 

[2ndhalf]

Hey, I've seen some joggers at 5AM, in the dark of winter, jogging along in a snow storm in the city streets. Dah-h-h, is that good for one's health?:thumbdown: It must be some kind of stupid to walk/jog not facing the traffic, on narrow country roads or in snow storms.

That's insane... I never jog in a snow storm or 5AM or the city or in the dark or in the daylight

 

[JerryK]

I always thought that they have some type of death wish. Like guys that drive towards you in the other lane on their motorcycles, no helmet, and declaring the yellow line area as ' theirs '.

 

[3930dave]

Or how about they senior citizen backing out of a parking space that might not see your unattended child?

Not just senior citizens. Rearward visibility on many modern vehicles is terrible. Certain compact cars and CUVs are some of the worst.

The old recommendation about being around machinery was Don't Move into the path, until you make eye-contact with the driver/operator. Many folks today prefer to look at screens instead of making eye contact. That issue is what scares me.... properly maintained, modern brakes and tires perform very well under most conditions - but there is an absolute limit to how fast you can stop. When someone steps off a curb when they shouldn't, bad things can happen.

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

You did good. I have become aware of the dangers to pedestrians at crosswalks, and bicyclists also. I recall being stopped at a light, when a lady and a dog began to cross in front of me; she had the light in her favor...when some jerk came blaring through the red light, just missing her and the dog by inches. Another time, I was at a red light on a divided street with a median. It's legal to make a right turn here on red after stop, and I was beginning my turn when some idiot on a bike came from my right ON THE SIDEWALK; and we just barely missed each other.

There aren't many "freak" accidents, like being killed by a meteor. Bad personal habits combined with impatience and/or inattention cause a lot of them - those negative factors can be equally present in drivers, walkers, runners, and bicyclists.

I was driving on a busy 4 lane boulevard, weekday, noontime. I was in the curb lane, when a guy walking down the sidewalk turned quickly, and stepped up to the curb. I braked sharply and stopped, as did the other southbound driver to my left. The driver in the car behind my lane mate was probably speeding, and definitely not paying attention, as there were screeching tires (pre-ABS) and a cloud of tire smoke drifting by on a hot summer day after he tagged the back of the car to my left. Nobody was injured, but it was definitely an accident that didn't have to happen.

Sometimes you'll see an adult pedestrian at an intersection who is unclear about what they are doing. Are they about to cross, or are they waiting to be picked up, meet another pedestrian, lost, confused, impaired..... ? Signaling intentions is not just for vehicles..... but I know that is asking too much.

Rgds, D.

 

[check]

I'm surprised that pedestrian fatalities are as low as they are today, given how many behave. Fatality is low because only small number (relative to population density) of people walk in the USA.

In Toronto, there have been 1000 crashes between pedestrians and or bicycles and Motor vehicles since June 1. Apparently an average of 9.5 such crashes per day. One example of why is what happened to me just yesterday. I stopped at a stop sign, and was about to turn left, when two cyclists blew right through the stop sign coming in the opposite direction and even gave me a dirty look because I had already started my turn. The rule at these three-way and four-way stops is that the person that arrives first gets to go first, and in fact a car driver who was travelling parallel to the cyclists did stop, knowing that I was there first and about to turn. However, even though he stopped, the cyclists just kept right on going and I would've struck them both if I had continued my turn and not slammed on the brakes. That's one of those situations where you wish that you had a dash camera, and then you could find out who they were, and let the cops know. Right now in Toronto the cops are very sensitive about this, and for sure would've given them both tickets for failing to stop at a stop sign. The fine would be about $250-$300.

 

[dmccarty]

We have an interesting intersection in our town. There is a restaurant a few yards from an intersection and parking for the restaurant is on both sides of the street and in a parking lot on the other side of the road from the restaurant. Most of the parking is on the other side of the road so people have to cross said road to get to the restaurant. We now have a bypass but this road, even with the bypass, is still a major road link with lots of traffic. So we have lots of vehicles on the road with quite a few people crossing said road.

There is a crosswalk just at the intersection but the vast majority of people just cross the street in front of the restaurant. The problem with this is that due to the nature of the intersection, traffic heading in a certain direction is moving at or above the speed limit after making a turn to head down the road in front of the restaurant. There is also a building that blocks the view of traffic until they have made the turn and are now on the road in front of the restaurant thus there is only a short distance with even shorter time to notice if anyone is walking across the the double yellow lines in the road. There have been many near misses at this location but the since the road is a state road and in a town you have at least two different government entities involved with any changes to the roadway. This has been discussed many times but it seems that nothing can be done about this situation. To be fair, it is a tough problem to solve because the only way to stop people from crossing the road would be to install a barrier which would then impeded traffic trying to access the parking lot from one direction. If access to the parking lot was allowed, people would just walk through the barrier opening.

It really is a miracle that nobody has been hit and killed.

When we were in Dublin we noticed people drive on the wrong side of the road. :shocked::laughing::laughing::laughing: Enough people from countries where cars are driven on the correct side of the road visit Dublin to warrant signs painted in the cross walks telling people which direction to look for on coming traffic. :shocked: We found this MOST helpful! :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Later,
Dan