nostalgic

A driver who was turning left honked and pressed on the gas while I had the walk signal.
I was already over halfway across the street, and the driver acted as if s/he wanted to tap me with their car.
I consider that borderline homicidal, if not totally.


I don't believe it is a pedestrian's obligation to run across the street if the walk signal is on. Pedestrians shouldn't have to run away from drivers coming at them like that.


Has anyone had such an experience? I am trying to hang on to some faith in humanity despite that incident.

cb400bill

Thread moved from Living Car Free forum to Advocacy and Safety forum.

BobbyG

I often walk to lunch which takes me across a busy intersection. There is little pedestrian foot traffic, and often drivers making turns will act as if I'm not there at all. At least on my bike I have my air horn, but that ain't gonna stop them. I have often thought of taking my phone out and video recording my walks across this intersection as a possible deterrent to heedless drivers, or as evidence in case I'm hit.

DeadGrandpa

You might want to change your expectations so that you expect the worst from humanity. That way you won't be constantly disappointed, and occasionally you'll be pleasantly surprised.

OldTryGuy

BINGO!!!

My outlook for life and the benefits of being a pessimist. I am always right or pleasantly surprised.

Notice I didn't use "won't be constantly disappointed" in favor of "always right" because not only is it true, ironically it's more positive.

Tony P.

I've crossed streets thousands of times without incident. An occasional guy not liking it means humanity is still doing well. Until they become the rule instead of the exception we're doing fine.

BTW, I appreciate the patience of those who wait quietly for me and try to hurry a bit as I cross. I don't see it as an obligation. To me it's being as courteous to them as they are to me.

bikecrate

Around here crosswalks are death zones. I try to avoid them and assume drivers will not stop, because for the most part they don't.

There is a crosswalk over a 4 lane street at work that connects the campuses together. I have more anxiety crossing that road than I do riding my bike around town.

canklecat

Imagine it from the perspective of someone in a wheelchair, on a walker or cane. Many of my neighbors are elderly and/or disabled and don't have vehicles. We're in a food desert, meaning there are few places to get good quality affordable food within walking distance. So they're forced to cross busy and unnecessarily dangerous wide boulevards to get to the nearest grocery stores.

Every trip risks being assaulted by careless drivers -- they can see pedestrians a long way off because of clear sight lines. But too often drivers speed up rather than simply continue at their normal speed, let alone slow down. It's a bizarre passive/aggressive behavior, similar to drivers cutting each other off when they see a turn signal.

For folks on limited incomes there's a food bank about a mile away, but it also involves crossing dangerous intersections and negotiating an obstacle course of busted up sidewalks and no sidewalks, just taking their chances on steep dirt slopes.

Rather than risk crossing those dangerous streets many folks will make do with whatever they can get from the nearest convenience store or the dollar store.

Changing this culture of aggressive drivers whose behavior borders on assault demands a concerted effort that I see only in a few carefully groomed boutique districts -- notably those undergoing fashionable gentrification. But the older working class neighborhoods that are reverting to neglected prairie are pretty much the wild west for anyone who doesn't drive.

The most stressful part of my bike ride is always the block surrounding my residence. As soon I leave this immediate neighborhood the drivers' behaviors change. In part that's because our entire immediate area is apartments with few long term residents who have no vested interest in participating in a community. But ride half a mile and the area becomes older residential neighborhoods with steady homeowners and more of a sense of community.

rydabent

Some egotistical pig headed drivers think no one should get in their way!!!!!!!!!!

Ninety5rpm

Sounds like someone in a hurry encountered someone not in a hurry at all. You had time to dismount and walk your bicycle?

Yeah, maybe she should have left earlier, or maybe it's an emergency and not her fault at all that she was in a hurry. Either way, I'm sure she wasn't trying to kill you (or you'd be dead); she's just suggesting maybe you could pick up the pace a bit...

genec

I witnessed similar actions by a motorist when also making a left turn, near a school... the crosswalk was full of youngsters going to school... when the left turning motorist pulled toward the crosswalk and honked.

I was shocked and thought perhaps the walk signal or light was at fault. Then I watched for a full cycle and saw that the walk signal and left turn signal both could be on at the same time.

Sure seemed like a flaw to me.

indyfabz

You are not required to run under any state law that I am aware of.


I walk a lot in a major city. I'll get back to you if I can think of an extended period of time when I am have not had such an experience.

Daniel4

We will experience more incidences like this as we get older and slower.

As Janette Sadik-Khan had said, streets should be designed so pedestrians can cross safely whether they are 8 or 80.

Milton Keynes

If it's any consolation, this morning during my ride I had not one but two drivers wait to make a left turn until I rode by. I think one jerkwad driver doesn't mean all drivers are the same.

wphamilton

Oh sure I've had that experience, on one corner in particular. Not one time or sporadically, but almost every single time I crossed it. It was mind-blowing how many drivers there were that not only don't stop on right-turn-on-red, they don't even slow down and they don't care if someone is in the middle and crossing. Leaning on the horn and red-faced because someone with a walk light is walking, and making them stop for their red light.

It turned into an epiphany for me about bike safety though. When I was sitting there at that same intersection on my bike with traffic in the through lane, thinking about how much safer that was than trying to walk across the cross-walk, it really brought home the difference between cycling safely in traffic and trying to act like a pedestrian.

Daniel4

Can't wait for self-driving cars.

CliffordK

The driver was just acknowledging that he saw you.
Don't worry about it.

Around here, the law is to give pedestrians the full lane + the adjacent lane when in a crosswalk, and most drivers are relatively courteous around pedestrians, and also bicycles in crosswalks.

rachel120

I heard that most crosswalks are timed with the expectation of someone crossing at 4 feet per second. That's roughly 2.7mph, which is average walking speed for someone decently young and healthy. I push my completely full grocery shopping cart at a little more than that speed, to give a practical example.

But that also means that the engineers aren't taking into account small children with short legs, old folks and anyone with a physical disability that impairs movement. And that's just the intersections with crosswalks. Next time you are out, take a look at how many intersections don't have crosswalks and therefore don't have the traffic lights timed to give pedestrians a fair chance at safely crossing the intersection. Some areas, the legal crosswalks are stupidly far apart, and people just have to chance it.

If cities want pollution control and less cars on the road, the city engineers need to massively rethink their ideas for traffic efficiency. Right now the focus is on making the system more efficient for cars, to keep traffic jams down. To get less cars in those traffic jams, they need to add in a ton more crosswalks and re-time the lights at every crosswalk for pedestrians at half the pace they are planned for now. They wouldn't even need the expense of pedestrian traffic lights, though those would be extremely helpful, they could just re-time the vehicle lights to allow time for crossing safely. Yeah, it would bog down cars, but buying a few of those strip malls that have been empty for years and are falling apart could be used for commuter parking so people could get out and walk or use the bus to get to population dense areas.

coominya

Never. Do you always keep and eye out, make eye contact with drivers? Or do you just walk across and put your faith in the traffic light to keep you safe?

Daniel4

In my experience, I always make eye contact but some motorists just proceed anyways.

Bmach

On the other hand I have seen people walk very slowly or texting as they slowly cross a street.

I-Like-To-Bike

Don't hold your breath. Better get used to waiting, or learn to cross the street without a lot of drama, just like the big kids.

55murray

Yep. That little white lighted up person is a siren inviting you to die.

Daniel4

Proposing a license to learn how to cross the street?

It's not pedestrians colliding and causing injury to motorists.

Why is bad driving an acceptable norm?

nostalgic

Yep. I look in their direction and make eye contact because a lot of times they are fidgeting with stuff in their car and not paying close attention.