What’s that you said? I’m not walking fast enough? Just because I’m in a cross walk doesn’t mean I can take my time? I should skip to and get the hell out of the way as quickly as possible?
I don’t expect you to modify your driving in any way when you have the right of way and I don’t. I don’t expect you to yield the right of way to me when it’s rightfully yours, and you have no right to expect it of me when the tables are turned. It’s a two way street, so to speak. If I want to cross the street in a place where I don’t have the right of way, I cool my heels and wait for as long as it takes, until I can get across the street without getting in anyone’s way. I expect you to do the same. Wait. For as long as it takes. Just like I do. You expecting me to scurry across a crosswalk so you can get on your way a few seconds sooner is Exactly the Same Thing as me expecting you to slow down so I can dart across in the middle of the block without waiting those few extra seconds. There is no difference, except for the fact that you can hurt me and I can’t hurt you. But I’m assuming we’re all civilized people and nobody wants to hurt anybody.
So get over yourself, and get over the attitude that my rights are an unreasonable infringement on yours.
—Gimpy
This article appears in Aug 13-19, 2009.
What a great argument :). It never even occurred to me to look at it this way. And I enjoyed how you slowed everything down “Wait. For as long as it takes. Just like I do.” to make your point.
the problem in this city is that no one bothers to read that motor vehicle handbook anymore. it states in there, that a driver,upon coming to a crosswalk, MUST YEILD THE RIGHT OF WAY. meaning you stop your fucken oiece of junk, dead in it’s track. til i am officially clear of said crosswalk. not just a fucking inch from your piece of junk.law states you have to wait til i am totally out of said crosswalk.now if i fuck around and take my good old time, well then i’m being a jerk. but you haver to stay put til i get COMPLETELY ACROSS. get the idea assholes. because if you don’t, i’m fucking sure your car or truck door will, when i lay off and kick the shit out of it, and then maybe you, if you mouth off to me.
sorry, that should have been pice of junk.
The impatience of some drivers is unbelievable. Take you damn good ol’ time, OP, let ’em wait and if they don’t like that, you could always lay in the middle of the crosswalk.
LIFE SUCKS – a perfect illustration of why certain sections of the MVA were written before the model T came along.
Next time I am in a coffee shop please stand behind me while I peruse my options and change my mind several times and fumble with change and generally hold others up.
As for Gimpy, assuming you are ‘gimpy’, I don’t expect you to walk briskly across the cross walk, same goes for the elderly or people with young kids. Able bodied people have no reason not to walk briskly.
One day I’ll be gimpy but until then I’ll walk briskly or even run across the crosswalk.
unless your amongst the elderly or disabled who are physically slowed down, there is no damn reason why you cant get your lazy ass across the road in a timely fashion. There is no reason to have to go any slower just to stick to the driver. Its attitudes like that, that lead to drivers who feel they have to vocalize there frustrations out on a slow ass in the middle of the street…..it goes just goes back and forth, like in anything, it takes a few to spread into an infectious plague of assholery on the streets, a lot of people out there just need to grow the hell up, and pay the fuck attention!!!!
How do you know who is able-bodied and who isn’t? Sometimes you can’t tell just by looking at someone… and what about the normally able people who maybe injured themselves in some way (pulled a muscle or something)? How about the days where I’m just really tired for whatever reason and I don’t really feel like running accross the crosswalk just so you can get to the next red light 4 seconds faster? If everyone just slowed down and calmed themselves, we’d probably have a few less accidents and a few more happy people.
Just hurry the fuck up and stop being an asshole OP.
Ninja Boot and Joe Blow seem to have completely missed the point. If I’m in a hurry, I walk faster. If I’m not in a hurry, I walk slower. It’s got nothing to do with “sticking it to drivers”. Do you race down the street with the intention of “sticking it” to pedestrians who are trying to cross? Of course not. You’re just driving at whatever speed seems appropriate to you. I am perfectly able bodied, but I see no reason to walk any faster in a crosswalk than I would walk on a sidewalk.
I usually hustle across the street, dragging my 6 year old behind me and I still get people creeping forward and huffing. With some people it doesn’t matter how fast you walk. The fact that you’re in the intersection at all is bothersome enough.
it’s called a crossWALK – it doesn’t say anything about RUNNING/walking briskly!
motorists chillout and slow down – you practically OWN and monopolize the goddamn roads as it is. as the OB says, a few extra seconds out of your day is not a big deal (and if it is, then you should cut back on the caffeine and re-learn the rules of the road. maybe even seek pscyhological help for your obsessive roadrage disorder).
As a pedestrian, I don’t really want to be in traffic’s way any longer than I have to, especially considering what some drivers are capable of. People do not (usually) cross slowly to irritate you. They may just be exhausted, secretly injured, older than they look, may have their pants around their ankles because that is the style at this time, etc… People will walk what they are comfortable with.
Did you ever notice that people will hesitate or say no to even family members when it comes to lending something, or some such thing, yet they have no problem trusting that a charging half ton of metal driven by a total stranger will stop to let them cross–crosswalk or not.
Yup walking slowly across a crosswalk (especially on purpose) is a real smart move. It’s not like brakes never fail or something else happens, that force field around the pedestrian is going to protect them from a 1,000 lb plus vehicle when it hits.
Not totally related but I thought I’d share a story and didn’t feel like staring a new bitch…my wife and I were looking to cross the road between Kent to The Bay at MicMacMall. Not at an intersection but we were patiently waiting for an opening in the traffic and having spent a considerable amount of time outside of HRM we were not expecting anyone to stop. A driver does decide to courteously stop for us to cross. I wave thanks once we’re on the other side. But then he yells out “It’s not a fucking crosswalk!” To which I replied, “Then why’d you fucking stop?!?” I received the middle finger as he drove off.
He was courteous enough to let us cross and then yelled at us for crossing. The passive-aggressiveness in the driver/pedestrian/cyclist attitudes in this town simply boggle my mind.