This bitch goes out to the irresponsible 40 someting bleach blond in the Windsor St. Sobeys parking lot on Tuesday November 9. You were wearing black boots, a black jacket and had a black umbrella ( which was completely blocking my vision of you and your daughter ) in the dark on a rainy night. You walked out in front of my car and almost hit it, the only reason I noticed you was because you dropped the umbrella to scream obscenities at me about how irresponsible I was, how much of an asshole I was, and that pedestrians have the right of way in a parking lot. (nice language in front of your daughter, I’m sure your mother would be proud)
You may have the right of way, but it is not yours to abuse. You still have to look out for traffic, you don’t have the right to walk blindly into the lane-way in front of someones car, then scream at them about how irresponsible they are. Nice lesson you are teaching your daughter, I’m sure she will grow up to be as stupid and ignorant as you are.
Even if I was driving like an asshole as you so eloquently put it, (which I was not, I was in first gear driving less than 5 km per hour) it’s your responsibility to protect yourself and your family member. You can have the right of way all you want, if you walk out in front of someone like that and get hit/hurt or killed, What good is the right of way going to do for you?
I will pay my 160 dollar fine, use my first accident forgiveness on my insurance and won’t even be late for dinner. Wow you have the right of way. Congrats!!! —Sick of irresponsible, ignorant pedestrians
This article appears in Nov 11-17, 2010.
almost o.p., you weren’t trying hard enough. same time, same place next week. she will be there again. this time, get it right,okay.
But black is the new flourescent orange.
Why do stores design parking lots that let cars drive by the main entrance? People have legs….they can walk….or roll in a wheelchair back to their parked car.
Fark this pisses me off, too. A week or so ago I was parked outside of a certain grocery & liquor store waiting for my friend to come out. It was dark & rainy outside so visibility was shit.
When I backed up out of the parking spot in order to back into another one (I only pulled head-first into the first one to get out of someone’s way) that’s when it happened.
This douchebag decided to walk right behind my car while I’m reversing (in my blind spot I might add) without looking. In the rain. At night.
He wasn’t even LOOKING at the car when I hit the brakes, but his 2 friends had enough sense to wait near the front of my car as I backed up.
The kicker is that when I shook my head at him later, as he & his early-20-something friends got into a car near mine, he waved and smiled at me when they drove by.
Hey douchebag, I may not feel too bad when I hit your ass and likely paralyze or kill you (Darwinism and all) but I’m sure you’ll be pretty bummed so SMARTEN THE FUCK UP if you wanna live to be 30.
Fuck.
So OB, I feel yer pain.
After a couple of episodes the past few years where I have made out a pedestrian at the very last moment, also after dark and with falling rain, I pretty much gave up on driving in the city on rainy nights. My vision was just checked, my eyeglasses are fine, my night-vision is fine, my windshield wipers do a good job…but I still can’t reliably spot a pedestrian in dark clothing with rain coming down and dim street lighting and brilliant car headlights in my eyes. Simple probability tells me that sooner or later I’m going to hit a ped.
So I don’t drive on rainy nights in the city anymore, unless it’s very important, and shopping or movies doesn’t qualify as important.
As pedestrians we’re told to assume that cars haven’t seen you until they actually stop. On clear sunny days the reason a lot of cars don’t stop for peds is because the drivers are assholes. But on rainy nights even the non-assholes can’t see you until the last moment…and a lot of the ones that don’t stop *never* did see you. So why do so many walkers think that they are visible?
A major part of the problem is oncoming headlights. I think we need to recognize the fact that nighttime rural driving requires certain automotive lighting (low and high beams, and sometimes even auxiliary driving lamps), daytime driving benefits from DRLs, and *night-time urban* driving has a completely different set of lighting needs. All you need in the city at night are fairly dim front lights that reveal your presence to other cars and to pedestrians, and which highlight reflectors…what you do *not* need are lights to illuminate the road, because if you can’t see that already you are in serious need of medical attention.
If local governments had the balls to actually take on this issue and enforce some sanity on car lighting we might get a bit more safety for all concerned.