To all the drivers out there who inch ahead at stop signs or red lights hoping to pull out. Wait your turn and don’t block off the Friggin crosswalk (especialy you cabbies!) Some of us who walk like to be able to cross the street with out having to take the journey all the way around your car. From now on we will be taking the path in front of you and doing the moonwalk as slowly as possible to piss you off.
PS. Be thankful we aren’t kicking your car as we go by.
—The Moonwalk Bandits
This article appears in Jul 23-29, 2009.
If it’s a double lane they’re probably trying to see around the car to their left to see if it’s safe to make the right turn.
Or maybe they’re trying to get through the ENDLESS stream of pedestrians that flood across the intersections (SGR is the worst for this). Courtesy goes both ways!
Fuck I’m in a bad mood this afternoon! Oh well at least it’s the weekend. See yas on Monday! 🙂
“the journey all the way around your car” Give me a fucking break OP, if that small “Journey” agravates you that much, do us all a favor and lock yourself in a padded room. You can do the moonwalk there.
Cabbies are the WORST for this. There are so many out there who are just rude drivers.
I almost got smashed the other day on South Park because a cabbie decided it’d be FUN to drive right through the cross walk with a stream of pedestrians in it.
Good job, bud.
That on the other hand, is a legitimate bitch PK! way to step it up for the OP!
I get a kick out of the assholes who do it and there’s no car behind them. There are people trying to go through the crosswalks and they just sit there all cool.
They’re usually driving a Mercedes or BMW or Lexus.
Ironically, if you touch the car with your finger tips, you suddenly turn into the asshole. Next time I’m going to use my keys across the hood.
Just kick there headlights out and they will get the point
A taxi driver was once being the kind of idiot spoken by the OB and I slapped the hood of his car with my hand (hey, he put the hood at my hip!)………..did he ever get pissed!!! Seriously pissed! Popping vien-in-the-head pissed…………………I felt quite satisfied with his reaction.
I had to hit peoples cars as I’m walking in front of them because they’re still inching forward. I find most people try to beat the yellow light and then stop in the crosswalk. Its illegal to enter into a intersection unless the way through is clear.
The best is when a car is pulling out of a parking lot, and they block the sidewalk trying to wait for their chance to pull into traffic. It seems to defy the point of a sidewalk if I have to walk around your car…
I mean if that doesn’t deserve an aluminum bat to the windsheild, I don’t know what does.
I find out of province drivers the worst, especially New Brunswick drivers. I smacked the hood of this hick New Brunswicker driving an old pick-up truck the other day because he was literally right in the middle of the crosswalk at the Willow Tree. He gave me a half dirty, half dumbfounded look. I told him he’s right in the middle of a crosswalk and he just kept looking at me strangely, not making any slightest effort to back up for others even though the car behind him was giving him the space to do so. I wish he would have gotten out of his car so I could’ve smashed the few teeth he had remaining right out of his hick mouth. Fucking uncourteous redneck moron.
qpmzwonx – I would have paid to see that.
I bet that New Brunswick redneck went back to NB with his tale of the “crazy Halifax people” to regal all the country folk in NB.
“rate nuts they are there”…..oh man, I can hear it now.
well to be quite honest, if they would ensure we can SEE at the intersection without already being half through it then we wouldn’t have an issue.
A small but consistent percentage of intersections/driveways/etc.. I continuously frequent would be a crap-shoot at best if I had to either wait before the sidewalk or pull completely out and go along my soon-to-be crippled way. And tell me the fucking point of this… what purpose are you trying to serve by putting a street sign on the trunk of a tree when it’s all gnarly and gangly and the leaves cover it over???
fucking idiots.
I live on Herring Cove, accross from the Sobey`s and pedestrian crosswalk and almost directly in front of the satellite Police Station. To you drivers, once the lights indicate that someone is in the process of crossing, despite him/her not being on your side yet, you still are obligated to yield until the pedestrian has crossed, not race through to “beat us”.
And to the assholes that stop inches from the crosswalk, Fuck you, one of these days, I will accidently drop my bag of 12 cans all over the hood of your car, oops, perhaps if you had given some space, that wouldn`t have happened.
To the majority who do follow the laws of crosswalks, Thank you, patience is a virtue and it is appreciated.
Douches
Is slapping someone’s hood something we can get away with? I’ve been tempted so many times but I fear being charged with.. I dunno.. car assault.
Just walk behind them? I don’t know, that’s what I do, I know how annoying it is trying to turn on a blind corner – it’s dangerous as well.
ugh, this is a peeve of mine as well. i pretty much walk/ride everywhere i go in the city, so i use the crosswalks a lot, and i encounter this situation every day.
now, i don’t mean to be sexist about this, but ime, WOMEN drivers tend to be the worst offenders at hogging the crosswalk lanes – but what really bugs me is that they just sit there as if they’ve done nothing wrong, and pretend not to even notice the pedestrians attempting to cross.
to be fair, some drivers (about half) will acknowledge their mistake and backup the car a bit (if there is room behind them), to allow the pedestrians to cross inside the lines. i always knod a thank you gesture if the driver at least makes an effort to give me some room to cross SAFELY. but there are others, self-involved assholes, who like to pretend that we pedestrians don’t even exist.
motorists take note, the crosswalk is for PEDESTRIANS, not for you to shave a few milliseconds off of your commute time by hogging the crossing lane, so stop your car BEHIND the line. your irresponsible & reckless driving habits create unsafe conditions for pedestrians and other motorists, so please, pay attention and smarten up! slowing down a bit wouldn’t hurt either.
btw, pedestrians should never walk behind a car that’s hogging the crosswalk, in case the driver suddenly decides to put their car in reverse. make eye contact with the driver first, then cross in front of his/her vehicle. tap on the hood of their car if they refuse (pretend not) to acknowledge you.
Would the driver get fined if you took pictures and sent them into the police? With all the camera phones out there it wouldn’t be hard to snap some pics or video. Making sure to get the plate and driver (I know those are important with any vehicle complaint). If I was a driver in the wrong and some person was taking pics of my car (in the crosswalk) while trying to cross the road, I would probly not do it again.
The WORST for drivers pulling out onto the sidewalk is at the starbucks/cibc entrance on parkland by lacewood. I used to get so pissed off and make it a point to walk in front of their car so they’d miss their chance to go….
….then I drove through that intersection and realised it’s a BITCH to get out of, so I give the drivers the benefit of the doubt and walk behind them….unless I’m approaching and they RUDELY just pull in front of me. Then I’ll walk in front and give them a little bit of stink-eye.
hey Mama, good call. That would make an interesting article.
I usually have the cell on me anyways.
take a quick snap from the side as you approach to get make and model…. them covering the crosswalk. then as you walk by behind, snap the plate and carry on.
Bet you fill the SSD in under a month.
Another shitty spot I always run into this issue is the intersection of Sackville and Queen– I acknowledge that it’s a hill, an awkward angle and a busy street to turn onto, but I have ALWAYS had to walk out into Sackville and around a car (or two, since there are two lanes, one for each direction)… it’s extremely dangerous and I am rarely acknowledged, and no one ever backs up. I think I will start tapping hoods.
Lets just review the saying. “Two wrongs do not make a right.” If you hit a car with your hand or something you are carrying, you could be responsible for the repairs. Because the owner inst paying for the repairs he will likely take the car to the dealer of a collision shop and you could be out hundreds if not thousands.
Just to clarify, I didn’t smack the hood of his car THAT hard, just enough to get his attention and let him know he was in the wrong, which he obviously still couldn’t figure out judging by the look on his dumbass hick New Brunswicker face. I don’t think I damaged anything. Seriously though, check the license plates or registration stickers of these offending cars and you will find that the majority of them are out of province drivers who don’t seem to realize that Nova Scotians generally respect pedestrians!
To you pedestrians who do not drive and are complaining about cars in the crosswalk:
You obviously have no idea what it is like to drive in Halifax. Most intersections are impossible to safely turn out of. In order to make sure we don’t get in a collision it is necessary to inch out into the area you might be crossing so we can see if a car is coming or not. So which makes more sense? Cry about having to walk around a car (which is probably the same amount of effort you would have to make say if you had to make room for other people that were crossing in the opposite direction) or us nasty mean car drivers drive blindly around a corner and risk getting smashed by another car just so you have full use of the crosswalk. Can you find something more useful to complain about?
I see both sides of this. If a crosswalk is clear and there is no sign of pedestrians, I will inch over the crosswalk to make sure there is no oncoming traffic before I pull out. However, if there are pedestrians walking towards the crosswalk, it’s certainly a matter of courtesy to ensure that you’re not blocking their progress. This isn’t rocket science guys, just common courtesy. Something this city lacks frequently
One time I was with a friend, and a driver had pulled so far into the crosswalk on Mumford crossing from the mall to the bus area, that we literally had to walk in traffic. There were kids there, as well as parents pushing strollers. My friend gave the car a friendly smack on the hood as she walked by, not even looking at the driver, just to let her know that forcing us to walk in traffic was dangerous. The driver actually watched where she went and found her as we were waiting for another bus and chewed her out for smacking of the hood. She didn’t even do it hard. We basically asked if she’d let her children play in traffic, because that’s what she was forcing some of the kids crossing to do. Fuck people are stupid.
Saw some cranky business man in Toronto beat the side of a Benz with his briefcase for blocking the crosswalk with his boat. Was pretty funny.
Smee, I have to ask – what is an OB? Do you mean OP, as in Original Poster?
I keep hearing (reading) you say OB and all I can think of is tampons…
Couple things, Sometimes as a driver, as was said, you get stuck in a crosswalk due to no fault of your own. Walk out into traffic? give me a fucking break, you would be at most 2 feet away from the lines, still clearly at a cross walk to anyone with half a brain. Also if this was the case and you hit someones hood, make sure you dont bite off more than you can chew. If someone hit my hood for no fault of mine they would get a word… or two… No to mention there are some crazy fucks out there who could do god knows what…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPlITw1YPj0
On top of that, further to LOGiC’s point, if any damage was done to the hood, the smacker would be liable for it…is it really worth it? I would say that a glare would be the safer way to let the driver know he or she’s an idiot.
Holy fuck Should Be Working, that is absolutely hilarious!
I know, I saw it a while back and searched for it when reading this bitch. It seemed appropriate. The old lady asleep in the crosswalk is priceless.
Am I the only one who thinks it could be pretty difficult to damage the hood of a car with a simple smack?