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**Dips** · 01-18-2009, 12:31 PM

I've noticed this trend recently. More and more people rely on everyone else to be attentive. They blithely run red lights to make right turns, run stop signs and yield signs when driving. Stop in traffic when something shiny catches their eye, change lanes without looking, etc. Pedestrians do the same thing. Don't pay attention to anyone around them or look where they're going.

And they usually get away with it because most other people ARE paying attention and instinctively compensate for thier imcompetence and inattentiveness.

That lack of consequence makes them even more lazy and incompetent, until they reach a state where they assume that everyone else has the DUTY to pay attention for them so they don't have to. They continue to blunder through the world in their little entitled cocoons of false security, never thinking they might run into another person who thinks and acts the same way they do...

Until the pedestrian version walks behind the car of the driver version like in the OP.

And you know what? I doubt very much that either of those people is going to change their behavior. That sense of entitlement has set like cement. There is no way either of them is going to believe that there was something wrong with their own behavior. Paying attention is the other guys's job. Always.

**protege** · 01-18-2009, 07:43 PM

I'm probably the only one here who has been rear-ended...by some idiot on a bike. Seriously. I'd just made a left turn, and traffic stopped. Rather than crack up my car, I stopped. Everyone else had stopped...except for the dumbass on the bike behind me. All I heard was a "thud," and when I looked around, saw him peeling his face off my rear window

He came around, and started screaming about how I "stopped suddenly."

And that's when I let him have it. First off, he'd rear-ended *me.* Meaning, the accident was *his* fault, never mind that I'd stopped. Second, if he'd been paying attention, it wouldn't have happened. I gave him the finger, and drove off.

Seriously though, I've noticed that trend too. Most people seem to think that they can drive like a moron, and the rest of us will watch out for them. Sadly, it doesn't work out that way--they either get hit, or hit someone else.

**Kogarashi** · 01-18-2009, 08:29 PM

Quoth protege View Post

Seriously though, I've noticed that trend too. Most people seem to think that they can drive like a moron, and the rest of us will watch out for them. Sadly, it doesn't work out that way--they either get hit, or hit someone else.

Or, at least, they get deluded by the fact that they run all those red lights or drive along without paying attention and haven't gotten into an accident yet, so they obviously won't. Which is baloney.

**Peppergirl** · 01-18-2009, 08:56 PM

I've related this story before on these boards, but it's been awhile. So for the newer members:

I was a cashier/bagger/cart wrangler back in the late 80's when I was pregnant with my first son. I was 18 at the time. As I got farther along, crazy as it sounds, I enjoyed getting the carts because it kept me moving and from getting all stiff and lazy from sitting and/or standing around.

I was gathering carts one afternoon and I was probably about 2 weeks from my due date. I was hugely pregnant. Next thing I knew, I felt a horrible pain at the back of my thigh and then I was on the ground.

Yep, some idiot old man BACKED INTO a pregnant woman, with enough force to knock her down and KEPT GOING.

I tried to rationalize that perhaps he didnt realize it, but several people who witnessed it and came to help me up stated that he hit the brake and looked in his rearvew before driving off.

Nearly 22 years later, I still cant help but be shocked when I look back.

Thankfully, I was fine.

**Pagan** · 01-19-2009, 04:21 AM

Quoth fma_fanatic View Post

So while I was waiting for a parking spot at the local Target today, I watched a woman walk down to her car and pretty much lollygagging around. She wasn't paying attention to her surroundings and walked past the car that was starting to pull out. The driver didn't see her, but the woman didn't see the car pulling out either.

For some reason lately, people have seem to have taken the notion that if they are backing up, they have right of way and that those of us going straight have to yield. Hell, some one even called into our local paper (We have a column on the op-ed page each week that you can call in a comment. I call it the "bitch du jour".) complaining about people not watching for them backing up!

And most of the people walking along that are oblivious to their surroundings, I've noticed that they either have a cell phone grafted to the side of their head or an iPod that they're fooling with. Now, I've used my iPod when I walk across the street to the store or if I'm doing a lot of grocery shopping, but I don't have it loud enough to hear from 5ft away and I pay attention to my surroundings!

**smileyeagle1021** · 01-19-2009, 12:23 PM

Quoth Peppergirl View Post

Yep, some idiot old man BACKED INTO a pregnant woman, with enough force to knock her down and KEPT GOING.

remember, you weren't a pregnant woman, you were a mere retail employee

Oh, and pedestrians are getting really stupid in Salt Lake... yesterday some idiot managed to miss the fact that he was about to walk in front of a train... granted this is Sunday so they were only running 2 car trains rather than the 4 car trains they use during the week, but seriously, that's still over 200 feet, how do you miss a 200 foot long train coming towards you

eta. I also found a story from saturday where two drunks crossing a street got hit by a drunk driver... Darwin sure is busy this weekend

another eta

Quoth Pagan View Post

complaining about people not watching for them backing up!

that actually is a somewhat valid complaint... if i'm in my Nissan "I'm not compensating for anything" and I'm parked next to a Chevy "I'm really over compensating" I really have no choice but to pray, start backing out, and hope the other person, if there is one, is paying attention.

**blas** · 01-19-2009, 03:41 PM

I see it all the time around here. And it's always the person paying attention's fault. Not the person blowing the red light or nearly side swiping you. Nope.

Although there are some instances where it's funny...

There's this total troll at work....just scuzzy and nasty looking, tries to look like Eminem or Paul Wall, he's barely tall enough to get out of the kid's sizes......he was walking down the hall "holla-ing" at his "homie" on his cell phone and wasn't paying attention to where he was going and he whacked his head against the first aid kit that sticks a few inches out of the wall and instantly looked around to see if anyone had saw that.

Oh it was hilarious. I laughed so hard I nearly peed. Yep, you are so cool and badass. Oompa loompa, doop a dee doo........

**Pagan** · 01-19-2009, 09:12 PM

Quoth smileyeagle1021 View Post

that actually is a somewhat valid complaint... if i'm in my Nissan "I'm not compensating for anything" and I'm parked next to a Chevy "I'm really over compensating" I really have no choice but to pray, start backing out, and hope the other person, if there is one, is paying attention.

I've been in the same spot as you many times and I'm willing to bet that you do the same thing I do. Back a little, look, back a little, look. Not just hit the gas and back out without looking at all. That's what I have a problem with.

**AriRashkae** · 01-20-2009, 12:47 AM

Quoth Pagan View Post

For some reason lately, people have seem to have taken the notion that if they are backing up, they have right of way and that those of us going straight have to yield. Hell, some one even called into our local paper (We have a column on the op-ed page each week that you can call in a comment. I call it the "bitch du jour".) complaining about people not watching for them backing up!

Don't know how it is where you are, but around here, the person backing up is considered 100% at fault, no matter who actually caused the accident. So most people pay attention at least while backing up. It's every other moment of the day I worry about.

**Pagan** · 01-20-2009, 04:50 AM

Quoth AriRashkae View Post

Don't know how it is where you are, but around here, the person backing up is considered 100% at fault, no matter who actually caused the accident. So most people pay attention at least while backing up. It's every other moment of the day I worry about.

Oh, they would be at fault here. They're entering the flow of traffic. But, to them it wouldn't be, because everyone else is supposed to watching out for their oblivious ass!

**protege** · 01-20-2009, 05:51 AM

Quoth blas87 View Post

There's this total troll at work....just scuzzy and nasty looking, tries to look like Eminem or Paul Wall, he's barely tall enough to get out of the kid's sizes......he was walking down the hall "holla-ing" at his "homie" on his cell phone and wasn't paying attention to where he was going and he whacked his head against the first aid kit that sticks a few inches out of the wall and instantly looked around to see if anyone had saw that.

Damn. That sounds *exactly* like former co-irker J. He simply refused to watch where he was going, and would throw a tantrum when he'd walk into something. Things like keyboard trays, office chairs, etc. In other words, whenever someone left their desk, we had to make sure our chairs were positioned "just so" and that our keyboard trays stuck out no further than 1 inch...simply because of this dumbass. Needless to say, he complained to the boss when we ignored him. Boss sided with us, simply because we have better things to do. If J is that stupid, he deserved to smack his knee on furniture

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