Getting sick of drivers who don't know what a walk signal is

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Sweetleaf
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13 Sep 2019, 4:01 pm

I don't drive so I use the bus to get to work, that requires walking to bus stops of course which can involve crossing the street. And I am getting annoyed with people who try to cut me off when its my turn or just floor it so I have to get out of the way to avoid getting hit.

I mean what is so hard about waiting your turn, when the pedestrian crossing light is on? Yesterday morning I was at the light waiting to cross, and of course once the cross light went on some jerk tried to cut me off. I wasn't having it so I just went and they had to wait like they should have been doing in the first place.

Then today after work I was waiting to cross the street and start crossing when the light came on. So of course once I am like a quarter of the way across some a**hole in a minivan comes speedily barreling through the turn from the parking lot revving(as much as you can with a minivan) and so I pretty much had to run out of the way. I ended up getting eye contact with the driver and so I gave her a 'wtf are you doing?' gesture.

Does anyone else have this issue when trying to cross the street? I mean I am just surprised how many people seem ok risking hitting a pedestrian I mean I think manslaughter is a pretty big deal wouldn't drivers want to avoid that?


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Marknis
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13 Sep 2019, 4:27 pm

I have a vehicle but I sometimes have to walk to get to certain places. Speeding is really bad here because men in the culture I live in associate speed with being “manly”. My older brother would get pissed if someone was going faster than him and he would floor the gas even if he broke the speed limit but he would still do so even if no one was “racing” him and I experienced firsthand him getting busted by a cop since he can’t drive below 80 mph without going into shock apparently. I’ve also been mocked for driving legally but in these jerks eyes it means I am driving “slow” or “like a woman”. :roll:

On another note, I was going to see 3Teeth in Austin but my trip got sabotaged and I ended up wasting a ticket.



Sweetleaf
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13 Sep 2019, 5:23 pm

Marknis wrote:
I have a vehicle but I sometimes have to walk to get to certain places. Speeding is really bad here because men in the culture I live in associate speed with being “manly”. My older brother would get pissed if someone was going faster than him and he would floor the gas even if he broke the speed limit but he would still do so even if no one was “racing” him and I experienced firsthand him getting busted by a cop since he can’t drive below 80 mph without going into shock apparently. I’ve also been mocked for driving legally but in these jerks eyes it means I am driving “slow” or “like a woman”. :roll:

On another note, I was going to see 3Teeth in Austin but my trip got sabotaged and I ended up wasting a ticket.


Well look at it this way, with driving legally you get to keep your license and not get tickets...they can get tickets or their license taken away.

As for that concert I had a pretty bad experience at a concert it was The Growlers one of the non-metal bands I like, I kind of wish I had just went home and wasted the ticket. I already was in a bad mood having to wait outside for 30 minutes in the cold(it was winter)before they'd open the doors and just didn't feel good about it. So I ended up drinking a little much too fast because I was stressed...so then at the end I caused a bit of a scene because I had lost a button style pin I got from the band merch table so the staff actually told me I had to leave :oops: (that said I can get worked up about losing things even if I am totally sober). Then I had my mom pick me up and she was lecturing me about drinking and wouldn't listen that the whole night was terrible and by that point I was more depressed than drunk.


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Marknis
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13 Sep 2019, 9:15 pm

Sweetleaf wrote:
Marknis wrote:
I have a vehicle but I sometimes have to walk to get to certain places. Speeding is really bad here because men in the culture I live in associate speed with being “manly”. My older brother would get pissed if someone was going faster than him and he would floor the gas even if he broke the speed limit but he would still do so even if no one was “racing” him and I experienced firsthand him getting busted by a cop since he can’t drive below 80 mph without going into shock apparently. I’ve also been mocked for driving legally but in these jerks eyes it means I am driving “slow” or “like a woman”. :roll:

On another note, I was going to see 3Teeth in Austin but my trip got sabotaged and I ended up wasting a ticket.


Well look at it this way, with driving legally you get to keep your license and not get tickets...they can get tickets or their license taken away.

As for that concert I had a pretty bad experience at a concert it was The Growlers one of the non-metal bands I like, I kind of wish I had just went home and wasted the ticket. I already was in a bad mood having to wait outside for 30 minutes in the cold(it was winter)before they'd open the doors and just didn't feel good about it. So I ended up drinking a little much too fast because I was stressed...so then at the end I caused a bit of a scene because I had lost a button style pin I got from the band merch table so the staff actually told me I had to leave :oops: (that said I can get worked up about losing things even if I am totally sober). Then I had my mom pick me up and she was lecturing me about drinking and wouldn't listen that the whole night was terrible and by that point I was more depressed than drunk.


I’ve almost gotten tickets but they got revoked because they were for minor things like forgetting to get my car inspected or driving without an updated driver’s license. It’s like having a bad driving record is a badge of honor for rednecks and jerks in general. I guess they also think those trying to cross the road are “weaklings” who need to get out of the way.

If it wasn’t for the things that sabotaged my trip and stressed me out beyond my threshold, I wouldn’t have had to waste a ticket. The parking lot Google recommended to me was very sparsely parked by other vehicles and there were a lot of cars in the street. I went to a pay terminal but it looked like it was off and it wouldn’t take my card. The homeless man told me I could park on the street and he would point out spaces for me but then would say I couldn’t park on them. He finally stopped on a sidewalk that had a red line and claimed it was ok for the weekend but my instincts told me the opposite. I then pulled into a parking garage but the pay terminal wouldn’t take my card. When I turned to get out, I accidentally hit the base of the barrier arm (The arm was raised) and the sickening crunch sound made me worried I dented my car which fortunately I did not. I was getting desperate and approached a couple to ask them for help. The boyfriend scowled at me and his girlfriend made a questioning gesture to me but the boyfriend pulled her back and said something like “No, keep going.” to her. I said that I just needed help in getting a parking spot but the “bad boy” boyfriend kept barring his girlfriend and scowling at me. I got so exasperated that I decided to just go home after that. I had been listening to 3Teeth for the last months up until then and I really wanted to see them, even though their newest album was disappointing. The incident also caused my stepfather’s voice to appear in my head (He hates Austin and loves Trump) and I saw another “bad boy” with a girlfriend while I was alone.



Trogluddite
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14 Sep 2019, 12:48 pm

Yes, motorists treating pedestrians as second-class citizens is pretty common here too, and it's a pet peeve of mine. I've nearly been hit many times by drivers jumping the crossings on my regular shopping route. And that's on the "pelican crossings" (with traffic lights), where there would be a penalty if the driver was caught. We also have "zebra crossings" (designated crossing place without any traffic lights), and it's pretty normal to watch a couple of dozen vehicles fly past before somebody is polite enough to stop, even when there's a whole bunch of people waiting to cross (I always wave thankyou when they do stop - I often get quite cross and wave a different gesture at the ones who don't!)

I have to take my life in my hands quite a bit on the roads, as I live in quite a rural area of Britain, and the local public transport is atrocious - to get between some places, the only convenient choice is to jaywalk along the side of the road, as the roads are too narrow to have pedestrian pavements (jaywalking is only illegal here on the big multi-lane motorways, because there's not really any alternative to letting people do it.) Some of these stretches of road are even the on the official routes of long-distance trekking paths (the "Bronte Way", which passes near here, includes some incredibly dangerous stretches with blind bends and gradients). It seems to be a game that some motorists play to see how close to the end of your nose they can get their side mirrors as you squish yourself against the wall or hedge at the side of the road, even when there's plenty of room because there's no traffic coming the other way. This is even more freaky when you have sensory traits like mine, but I'd be even more isolated and shut-in if I didn't risk it.

I also get really annoyed that the road-planners never seem to consider pedestrians. They just built a load of new shops near to me, and the junction for the access road is always incredibly busy - but the only safe crossing point would mean having to walk a few hundred yards down the access road to the other end of the car-park and back again! They could very easily have included a pedestrian crossing, as there are already traffic lights for the vehicles - but no, the very idea that there are people who don't or can't drive doesn't ever seem to occur to them, and there are quite a few other local spots where the road layouts are equally inconvenient and/or dangerous for pedestrians (it must be even harder for wheelchair users and parents with toddlers in push-chairs, etc.)


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jimmy m
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14 Sep 2019, 1:55 pm

I think this problem affects motorist and pedestrians alike. Some people just act like they own the road. There has been many times when a pedestrian will come up to an intersection and not even look at the stop light and just walk blindly across the street. Bicyclist will also do this and just take it for granted that no one will hit them.


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Claradoon
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14 Sep 2019, 7:34 pm

Where I live, neither drivers nor pedestrians obey the rules (or lights). The physically fit manage to jaywalk, the rest wait until they can cross in crowds.



nick007
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14 Sep 2019, 10:21 pm

Claradoon wrote:
Where I live, neither drivers nor pedestrians obey the rules (or lights). The physically fit manage to jaywalk, the rest wait until they can cross in crowds.
It's like that here too.


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