Pedestrian Rage

[AFpheonix]

To the first: as my husband likes to say, "Pedestrians have the right of way, but cars have the right of inertia."

Do you mean right of momentum? (mass x velocity) inertia involves how much force it takes to move something (mass x friction).

Sorry, I'll take my nerd hat off now

[One-Fang]

Momentum provides force.

[Kogarashi]

Do you mean right of momentum? (mass x velocity) inertia involves how much force it takes to move something (mass x friction).

Sorry, I'll take my nerd hat off now

Well, considering he's a nerd too and says "inertia," and considering I just looked it up (properties of moving something stopped or stopping something moving), I think it applies. But "momentum" would fit there too, yes. Inertia just sounds better.

[Horsetuna]

As someone who's been nearly hit a few times, and actually hit once, I can't say how cautious I've become.

First time I remember being hit, it was just after sundown in summer, I was on my bike on the sidewalk. Cherokee pulls up, and stops. I dont see the driver but I slow, she doesnt move. okay, safe to pull ahead!

Moments later... ROAAAAR !*CRASH*

I had no helmet on.. I'm VERY lucky. I had been thrown off my bike and got bruises and scrapes. My bike had been twisted up under the vehicle - and if I was not thrown I would have been under there too I gander.

Luckily it all worked out. we made our police report and she replaced my bike. I didnt sue, cause it was half my fault for not WALKING my bike across.


SEcond incident was a few years later. I was walking on the sidewalk along the side of a one-way threeway, against traffic. I stop at a light... cop van pulls up. Cool. I admire their hotness through the window and notice how intently they are looking UP traffic.

Light turns green. I have the walk sign. BUT... they dont see me. I know they haven't as they never ONCE looked my way.

So I wait. And wait. Finally I think 'okay i'm going ahead."

But before I get a chance too, they PEELED out at full speed, turning AGAINST traffic and their lights and sirens go out.

Three police-vehicle takedown around one car right there in the middle of the street. O.o

That van would've ploughed over me. I'm VERY glad I never step in front of a vehicle unless I know they see me. I will instead go around the BACK fo the first vehicle or wait.

I was also nearly run down by some jerk in a sportscar once. I had to leaP BACK out of his way and gasped as he kept on going. JErk... guy crossing with me said I coulda gotten something out of that - I knew he meant money but i could only think of is 'I could've gotten killed!"

Third incident isnt' quite as dangerous. waiting for the light again, when i hear sirens. No big deal. Look that way to see what's going on. Miss my light too as I see another takedown - guns out and everything.

If that incident had been ten seconds later I would've been two feet away from where it was.


So yeah, NEVER presume the driver sees you. I'm a very lucky person to not be dead or hospitalized.

[Acolyte]

As far as what to do with idiots that step out in front of you in a parking lot, I have the perfect answer, and it puts the fear of the automotive gods in them. (Warning: don't try this unless you are 1000000% SURE you won't mess up. Got that? Good.) What I usually do is leave my foot on the brake, drop the transmission into Neutral, and rev the engine. I've never had anybody ignore that (ESPECIALLY with a 4000+ lb Grand Cherokee sitting in front of them).

Ooh, I love doing that! I made a bunch of drunks staggering through the McHell's parking lot at 5:00 AM (When I started my shift...*sigh*) fall down and scatter when when they were standing around in the middle of the lot.

[MadMike]

One night, I nearly hit some idiot who did that. This guy was running along the sidewalk, and suddenly made a left turn in front of me.

I had something like that happen once, except that it was two guys on bikes, and it was along a mini-expressway. They were riding on the shoulder, and I was in the right lane. Suddenly, one of the guys swerved right into my lane without even looking. I had to slam on the brakes and yank the wheel to the left to keep from hitting him. Then they had the nerve to look at me like I wasn't supposed to be there. I stuck my head out the window and screamed, "YOU STUPID FUCK!"

You might expect this to have been some stupid kids, but these were adults in their late 20s or early 30s -- clearly old enough to know better. One would wonder how they managed to live that long being that stupid.

[Banrion]

One would wonder how they managed to live that long being that stupid.

Because people like YOU keep hitting the brakes and swerving into oncoming traffic risking your own life & limb, instead of doing these people a favor and putting them out of their misery.

[MadMike]

Because people like YOU keep hitting the brakes and swerving into oncoming traffic risking your own life & limb, instead of doing these people a favor and putting them out of their misery.

True. And ironically, had I done the gene pool a favor by doing what you suggested, I'd be arrested.

[Casino Jockey]

My girlfriend used to cycle to work on a daily basis (my girlfriend also worked midnight - 8am)

One night she ws hit bya drunk on his way home. he had mounted the pavement, and unforunitly collected my girl before hitting a tree.

heres the results:
Me: quitting my job to be with my girl and help with her rehab.

Her: Shattered Hip, Broken leg, broken ankle, knee reconstruction, pins in her leg, Hip replacement (at 25). also broke her arm, and a few ribs. almost 4 months before she even walked again.

Driver: Car wrote off, pretty badly injured 2 years jail time.

[Brighid45]

I hit a kid on a bike once. I was coming down a two-lane highway one fall afternoon, bringing my cat back from a visit to the vet. This kid was on my right, sort of meandering back and forth across the shoulder. I slowed way down because I had a feeling he didn't know I was there (thank GOD I did that). I didn't want to honk my horn and startle him, nor pass him just in case he decided to cross the highway. Sure enough, about 2 seconds later he cut right in front of me with about 5 feet to spare. I literally stood on my brakes and saw the kid disappear under the hood, felt the front wheels ride up on top of him even though I was only going about 20-25 mph and decelerating as well. I will never forget that sensation, nor the immediate thought burned into my brain: "I killed him. OMG, I killed him."

Fortunately, he was pretty scraped up but otherwise all right. The car went up on the bike and pinned him under it, then pushed both along the road for about six or seven feet. And the damn kid was more upset about his trashed bike than he was about being scraped from shoulder to hip!

He called his mom, I called 911, stayed until they came, and left my name, number and insurance company information. When my company called, they suggested we pay the claim and be done with it, so that's what happened. I talked with the kid's mom a few weeks later to see how he was doing. She said she was making him earn the money for his bike, since he caused the accident--even he said he had been stupid in not looking.

Ever since then, any time I drive and bike riders come up on either side, I get very, very nervous.

[Luna]

Just a few days ago I almost hit an elderly couple in my apartment complex. It was night time. I was slowly backing out of my space. Two huge SUVs parked on either side of me, so all I could do was inch my lil cavalier out a bit at a time. Now let me say again - it's NIGHTTIME. You can see my brake lights from across the parking lot as almost none of the security lights in the complex work and the area is nearly pitch black.

I checked the front to see if I was clearing the SUVs, and when I looked back in the rearview - an elderly couple were standing BEHIND MY CAR.

I slammed on the brake with BOTH feet, heart stuck in my throat, immediate heartburn taste pouring into my mouth.

So what did they do? The guy crossed his arms over his chest and GLARED at me. The wife started yelling at me in a language I do not understand. Screaming at me and waving her arms frantically.

When I stopped shaking, I got mad. I rolled down my window and told them to move before I ran them down for real. The guy gasped and then pulled wife away, she was still screaming at me.

Why on earth would you see the only car in the parking lot with it's break lights on, at night, backing up and decide to not only walk behind it - but then STOP directly behind it?

[ArenaBoy]

I commute to school and I am very tempted to clean the gene pool a bit. This morning, a guy stops in the middle of the road to talk to his friend for 1 minute.

Then there's the numerous times I've almost hit people because they walk out right in front of me and THEY glare at me when I'm sitting there freaking out.

[protege]

Just last night, I nearly clipped two idiots walking in the *middle* of the road near the local mall. It was dark, they were wearing mostly black...and I couldn't see them until I got within about a foot behind them. As if that wasn't enough, they were pushing a baby stroller! When they saw me, they gave *me* the nasty looks. Yeah, screw *you* too!

[Cia]

A couple of years ago I almost took out an entire family. On Disk Drive there are no street lights except what comes from the billboards, no sidewalk - just a path on a hill and it does an S-curve from the Mall to Haines Avenue. Okay, so I was going around the first S-curve when all of a sudden there were 5 people, 1 in a wheelchair, all in dark clothes right in my lane. Talk about swerving quickly to the left. Luckily no one was in the left lane because I would either have hit them or the idiots in the street.

Why the city hasn't put in a sidewalk yet, the Mall has been there since the late 70's, I don't know but usually around here somebody has to die first before the city gets off their collective a$$es and does something about it.

[CrazedClerk]

I got hit this summer while biking, fortunately save for a scraped elbow and cut shin, I was fine. I even went to work after. But this woman was making a right turn, she HAD a STOP and didn't even SLOW DOWN. Anyway after it happened she got out of the car and was all apologetic. The first thing I said was "usually when people see a Stop sign, they stop". I'm not sure if she hear me or not and the kicker, this woman worked for the local Police services. She wasn't a cop, but worked for the police doing something.

Oh and one in a grocery store, I had some SC who was paying NO attention to where he was going, slam his cart right into my knee/shin at pretty much full speed. I grunted loudly and gave him a nasty glare, he just looked at me said bluntly "oh, sorry.".

Not "oh my god I'm so sorry" or "I didn't see you there" or "are you ok?". I was right in plain view and he smacked into me. What in the hell is wrong with people?