No Driver's License Required

[wagegoth]

I take public transit, so I don't have to deal with stupid drivers too much, but that doesn't completely stop it.

The other night, I got off the BART train at my home station. I'd gotten a stone bruise, so I decide to take the elevator, rather than the stairs. A guy with a bicycle got on with me, but just as the doors almost shut, a man stuck his arm in. It was an elderly man on an electric scooter, like the Hoverounds, so small but heavy. The cyclist and I squish ourselves against the wall and let the man in.

Huge mistake, of course.

As he backed out of the elevator when we arrived downstairs, he managed to run over ALL of my toes. ALL of them. If he hadn't been elderly, and apparently disabled, he would have heard some of my vast collection of foul language. He went on his way, and the bicyclist heard one m______f_____ from me. The bicyclist looked at me quizzically, so I said through clenched teeth, "He ran over my toes." The guy was really nice, asked if I could walk, and then we went our separate ways.

I'm just glad the elderly guy only had a scooter, not a car.

[laborcat]

Nice be damned. I'd have let him have it. People driving scooters ought to know how much space they need, just like someone driving a car should. There's no excuse for him to crowd himself into a small space like that, anyway.

[shadowpanda]

I would have made one hell of a noise about my toes being run over, doesn't matter who was doing it. I understand why you didn't though

[Cazzi]

I would have made one hell of a noise about my toes being run over, doesn't matter who was doing it. I understand why you didn't though

That ^, and I have done, loudly, in a bus station when for some reason I turned invisible & had two people run grocery laden trolleys over my foot with a sprained ligament & several handbags in the head as people had to rush to be first onto a bus.
One person turned round & asked "did I catch you" in an uninterested way & rushed off.

95% of them were elderly too. I don't know if its the area I live in or what, but a large percentage are total EWs & will gladly shove a door closed in your face if they see you coming through loaded with bags, then go off & mutter about the younger generation having no manners

Oops, sorry about the threadjack... that episode annoys me as much now as it did when it happened

[LillFilly]

People sure are reckless and thoughtless with those chairs/scooters/riding things. I wish they needed some sort of 4-hour mandatory course on the correct safety usage and courtesy of the things before they're allowed to take them out in public; maybe a sticker attached to it verifying they know how to operate it.

I'd have given him what for. Old does not equal always blameless.

[bainsidhe]

Poor little toes! I've had luck with people on personal scooters, they're usually friendly and aware enough not to drive in a manner dangerous to pedestrians and/or drivers. But have someone get on a scooter in a store, ugh. And I realize store scooters are mostly used by very lovely folk, but the bad ones are horrible enough to make one forget that parts of humanity are decent.

[Daemonmonkey]

I always have wondered how it is always the retired elderly that are in a rush to get onto a bus in such a fashion that they push everyone else away....

As i recall being retired means that you have time to wait and not stress around...