This is a letter to all the asshole drivers in this city lately who have forgotten that when you make a right turn on red, you have to wait for the pedestrians to get through the cross walk. You’re going to kill someone so that you can save 5 seconds. Hope it will be worth it…
The worst offenders are making right turns from Portland to Pleasant at 5 corners, but I’ve seen it elsewhere as well. I’ve either almost gotten it or seen someone else almost get it at least 5 times just this month.
Learn to drive or walk! Actually take a walk and use some crosswalks just to see how vulnerable you are and maybe gain some perspective.
—Guy who is probably going to be run over soon
This article appears in Nov 12-18, 2009.
I always try to make eye contact with the right-turning driver before I step in to the crosswalk. Usually they are still looking left, checking for cars, and don’t look right again until after their vehicle is making the turn.
It’s bad on the Robie/Quinpool corner, where the cars are turning right onto Robie Street. I’ve nearly got creamed there three times from people seeing an opening and gunning it before they look right.
Another thing drivers turning right on reds don’t realize…you still have to STOP first!!! It’s still a red light. Most people are stupid…too stupid.
Turns on red lights (right AND left) are nice little earners for cities that have been installing redlight cams…average about $2-300 a ticket, plus points….wheee!, thanks folks, for sitting back like lemmings and accepting this money-grab from fat cats at city hall anxious to offset their expenses…
…The evidence is that turning on a red light with a “rolling stop” is NOT a significant cause of collisions (AAA, 2007)…in fact it SAVES GAS by reducing the stop/start factor…which is THE REASON that right turns on red were introduced in the ’70’s for all you youngsters out there…It’s NOT for the pedestrian’s right to sashay through intersections like a star-struck beauty queen – oblivious to the traffic and surroundings around them….
Watch where you’re going for gods’ sake…we drivers are saving the planet, and you’re in our way! I say, more rickety pedestrian overpasses like in the third world, why are we so far behind?
The “stop” at red light will soon be replaced by a “yield” at red light anyway…(like pedalists already do)…why stop if there’s clearly nothing coming?! It just wastes fuel!
So OP, why are you griping about something that only benefits yourself? what about the environment and the greening of driving? Do you really want MORE CO2 and NO etc in the air because you are too stubborn too slow your pace a few seconds once or twice a day?
What’s wrong with you?
I’m hoping you’re kidding Frosty, but if not….if I have a walk light and you have a red light, I have the right of way…you’re just going to have to wait for me to cross before you make your turn. The driver is the oblivious one if they make the turn before the crosswalk is clear.
I don’t know if this was already posted, but…
Miles’ mother reprimands Bad Mr. Frosty = p:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fk69CK2kCdQ…
I believe the best system to use is the who’s bigger system.
If you believe you can stop that car or truck in its tracks if it runs into you, then step out into the street whenever you wish. If your like me & realise that the car or truck is going to take you out…step back pick your nose, play pockey pool, whatever, but let the traffic f l o w. Better yet…get your own vehicle & come play hit the pedestrians with the rest of us drivers, little old ladies are 10 points…students in good physical condition are 100 +… they’re so quick its hard to hit them !
I like the “who’s bigger system” . nice.
And since I have 22 wheels, and usually about 80-100,000 lbs, I am.
Miles..actually, no, I;m not kidding (!?). I believe in the safe rolling right turn on a red light, and believe that if we looked back to the origin of the red light right turn (the first fuel crisis of the ’70’s, and wanting to reduce idling), it only makes sense… having to come to a full stop is a huge waste of fuel, if the way is clear!
Of course, a “safe” rolling right turn includes yielding to traffic, both vehicular and pedestrian. (Unlike what pedalists seem to bother doing, btw)…
The point is, that, like the vegan weekend-warrior kayakers of False Creek who paddle furiously in order to get in front of the power/fishing/charter boats, forcing them to go full astern, becuase it’s their “right” (it’s not, actually – under the collision regs, ALL vessels must endeavor to avoid a collision, whether they have the “right of way” or not)…like them, there are some militant pedestrians that will blithely place their own small insignificant lives (and my nice chrome grill) in jeopardy by refusing to either slow their pace a few milliseconds, or, “gods forbid” maybe take a few jogging steps ahead to complete their crossing, AND allow the car/truck to proceed.
Personally, I always quicken my step a bit when a car yields to me in a parking lot etc…even if just a few “steps”. But some pedestrophiles seem to actually relish bringing vehicles to a roll-back full stop…rather than quicken their pace. This applies to those that refuse to boogie, even when they see that the light is going to change…Oh no, they want to finish their leisurely fucking stroll without a care in the world, even though many have stepped out on a red hand in the first place…c’mon you idiots, cross the damned road, says I…
I just thought you were kidding because you sounded a bit sarcastic.
And what the hell do you need 22 wheels for? Are you driving 11 electric scooters at once? 🙂
However, as a pedestrian, I tend to do what you do and wait a second or pick up the pace if I am going to be holding up traffic. I’m all about flow of traffic (I drive once in a while too) but I’m also all about my right of way and safety when I’m a pedestrian. Just because you are bigger than me and CAN run me over, doesn’t mean you should try to.
No, but I’d feel bad if I did…
Well, that makes me feel a little better.
“Oh yeah…”24” wheels then….even better.
although, it’s funny, but the opposition to tiny electric scooters and bikes DOES make it seem like to get run over by one would be somehow 10 times worse than getting run over by a pedalist…
I was doing some reading, and the debate between pedalled and electric powered bikes in TO is RAGING – far worse than I would have guessed.
Apparently, there’s a really militant feeling (or is it jealousy?) amongst pedalists that they “were here first” as regards the whole “green” transportation movement, bike lanes etc etc….and that hybrid/electric bikes and scooters are latecomers to the whole game, and are somehow “muscling in”, lol…
Who’d have thought that the biggest opposition to this form of green transportation would come from some radical pedal-bikers themselves?!
Proves one thing – human nature being what it is….no matter WHAT our politics/religion/culture etc, there will ALWAYS be some folks among us that would rather shit in the cornflakes than pass the milk…
Really, it seems to me that 2 wheels (motorcycle, scooter electric bike, regular bike, whatever) is really the way to get around the city.
It really is too bad there’s no unity on that front. Large numbers speaking with one voice is the best way to see some real change on the legislative front.
Absolutely. It’s crazy to think that “mass transit” cattle-cars are going to replace our individual conveyances…but clearly the model needs to shift. And the solution is an odd combo of the two. Little tiny vehicles, electric or otherwise, that retain our freedom to putz around town as we are used to…combined with longer-range railed/pulled/trained etc vehicles that the little vehicles piggy-back on for inter-provincial/city transport…
This model already exists in various forms…many think that the “chunnel” from the UK to the EU is a tunnel you drive through…nope – too slow and too polluting. Instead you park your vehicle on a train and shut off the engine, the ride takes about 45 minutes. In fact, for commercial vehicles, we’d get out and go inside a “dining” car for a meal/snack/coffee etc…
Then, when the train reached France, we all drive off in our seperate directions…sweet.
But the idea that I’m gonna give up my private conveyance to go sit on a stinky loser-cruiser that I’ve waited an hour for, then remember I forgot an important item at home and I’m now screwed, can’t run any errands on my lunch break, can’t offer someone a ride home, or even bring anything I can’t carry, can’t deour, can’t stop for a crap, can’t smoke, can’t sing, don’t make eye contact with the large Samoan wrestler and so on and so forth?
No way. So it’s time to see the current laws against electric vehicles etc
for what they are…throwbacks to the days of fat white men in suits making the rules and 10 cents a gallon…
In fact, if an ATV can get 100 miles to the gallon…I’d rather see THAT on the road than not, how you like THEM apples?
In Scotland, they CAN!
The Scottish also throw telephone poles end-over-end for kicks. I’m not sure if safety is high on their priority list 🙂
and we eat haggis…blech
And deep fried Mars bars.
I swear the whole culture is based on Scotch-induced daring each other into rediculousness.
“Hey, Angus, I bet ya won’t eat the innards of this here sheep if I stuff in its stomach….while wearing a dress!”
“If I doo that Duncan, your’re gonna hafta take this wee little ball, hit it with this stick and get it into that wee little cup all the way over there….while wearing a dress”
och nae you take your undies off first
oh and you do this just the once…
Fuck no…. 18 fucking times!
btw, almost got mowed down friday at springgarden and south park… apparently this guy in a mini felt red lights didn’t apply to him. JUST got past him as his driver side mirror brushed past me. granted, I’d give the mini 2:1 on me for ‘ability to squash” factor but still pissed me off.
so ffrosty believes in breakng traffic laws to save fuel and time – great – so i quess when you “roll” a red – and hit someone – and he lives? he I quess gets to break the law ( assualt cause bodily harm ) also by beating your law breaking cause injury law ass ? I quess so – look for some people like yourself that violate the law and have a good day “rolling” lights till the real law catches up to you ” you know the assholes that love to beat asses” kind?
asshat
“Kilty, kilty cold bum” ~Billy Connolly
LOL!
I like the way Miles thinks. My only form of transportation for more than several decades has been a motorcycle. It is more than adequate as a vehicle and a lot more fun than a car. Well, perhaps a little less so during a torrential downpour, but still interesting:)