I just narrowly escaped getting hit TWICE in the same crosswalk. I’m reasonably cautious when crossing – I look first, make sure the driver has plenty of time to stop before entering the cross walk – but when driver #1 didn’t look like he was going to stop, I waved my arms at him until he slammed on his brakes. Then as I’m right in the middle of the road, I see driver #2 coming in the opposite direction, going much faster than reasonable (if I had to guess, I’d say at least 65-70) and there was no way she would have stopped on time, so I lurched backwards and screamed at her, she slammed on her brakes just fast enough to stop where I was half a second earlier. And to top it all off? As soon as I was safely on the curb, she floored it. What the fuck?! Nearly running over someone isn’t enough to get you to think twice about speeding in a densely populated residential neighbourhood? I hope you rot in jail when you eventually kill someone with your reckless driving. —Not the first time, either.
This article appears in Dec 2-8, 2010.
I often see this happen. I do stop for pedestrians, but most drivers don’t. Several times my vehicle has almost been rear-ended by inattentive drivers when I have stopped at a crosswalk for someone to cross.
One thing about pedestrians on crosswalks though…..when cars do stop, don’t walk as slow as you possibly can to cross. Drivers do appreciate when you cross at a reasonable pace.
Can you see OB ?
Can you distunguish one color from another ?
I’d like to tell you about this odd feature every car & truck on the roadways of this Province has….it is called a license plate. Each one has a different group of numbers & or letters on it. IF you could see the car & get the plate number…you could report them to the police.
What can help you even more ,is a witness who seen what you just reported here.
That way you may be able to stop this driver from driving for awhile, because once they get enough demerits on their driving license…the authorities will take it from them, & then they have to walk as well !
Wait for the traffic to be stopped BEFORE you cross. It is something we learned in elementary remember ? Don’t rely on other people when it comes to your safety.
I’m with Kirbul on this one. Make sure people have *actually* stopped before you decide to enter the crosswalk.
If the OB had to wait for traffic to “stop” before crossing, they would be there all day. I wait for 3,4,5 cars to pass by me while I am standing, waiting patiently at a cross walk, attempting to make eye contact with these morons.
Then I step out into the street and get ready to fight! lol
You have to wait for 3 or 4 cars to pass before someone stops …shit what does that take maybe 30 seconds ? My advice still stands look both ways, and make sure traffic is stopped before you cross. Voila no more close calls…
Right, and my comment still stands, if the pedestrian doesn’t initiate the cross by walking out into the street without waiting for cars to stop – they’d be waiting there all day – because people don’t stop. It’s a bit of a catch 22.
On a nice summer day with temps in the 80s I would wait quite a bit longer – rainstorm, freezing rainstorm, not so much haha 🙂
I hate pedestrians who press the button and just start walking. I don’t care who’s fault it is if I get hit, it’s going to f’n suck either way….a big insurance claim to go through a shit load of pain is not worth it!. I stop and make sure all cars are slowing to a stop and then I hustle.
dartmouthy you go do that and let us know what hospital you’re in or have your family tell us which funeral home. Vehicle vs human, vehicle wins everytime.
depending on your age, weight, height, and gender, you are only a few points to us drivers.
now if you are under 16, female, and slim, then you go to 20 points. older than 25, 10 points.
see where i’m going with this. or in other words, move faster, or you are bound for the ground.
this just in, o.p., bitches about almost being hit by car. meanwhile, in downtown halifucks, a woman whacked by an s.u.v., thru window, gets taken to hospital. news from s.g.r. earlier today.
OP here… Thanks to those who voiced their support. In response to the suggestion by “More” to write down a license plate number — next time you’re almost mowed down, see how clearly you’re thinking about getting someone’s info before they speed away. I got to my door and immediately thought “fuck, if I’d caught their plate number, I could actually have done something about this.” Well, hindsight is 20/20.
And to “Dartmouthy” I completely agree that you can’t just WAIT for people to come to a complete stop. It just doesn’t happen. Most drivers are probably courteous enough to stop if you make it abundently clear that you intend to cross (ie, stepping out into the street) but there are certainly far too many drivers who don’t seem to have half a clue what’s going on around them.
dartmouthy is the only one who stated one of the most important things about crossing the street. Make EYE contact. And don’t walk out into traffic. DUH.
You’d be surprised how much a situation can change between the time you waited for traffic to stop and started crossing, and what’s happening on the other side of the street by the time you get there. Traffic had stopped and I started crossing, but the dumb cow in the red kia pulling out of the parking lot was looking at traffic coming the other way and didn’t see me, and I was nearly struck. If I’m in the middle of a busy street, I can’t hang out too long and wait for bitches like that to see me (or wait for them to go) because every other asshole in a 1-ton killing machine will get road rage waiting for me to wait for it to be safe (like sebastien said, “when cars do stop, don’t walk as slow as you possibly can to cross. Drivers do appreciate when you cross at a reasonable pace.”)
…and don’t lead with your stroller
Today in Dartmouth Crossing…the car in front of me made a left turn. Then I made my left turn. Guess what….a pedestrian thought it would be wise to walk right in front of my SUV. I laid on the horn and he looked startled…..how the fuck do you not notice an SUV? He didn’t even look to see if there were any vehicles on the road. He just walked out from behind a building.
jgo, true but you don’t enter the next lane unless traffic is clear or stopped, unless you are Superman, The Hulk, or The Thing, lest you become worm food.
http://www.adherents.com/lit/comics/image/…
Shitty Halifax drivers ain’t got nothing on shitty Edmonton drivers! Good luck trying to get these white trash hicks in their pickup trucks to stop for you at crosswalks out here. And since I mentioned white trash hicks, can I make any comments about Asian drivers now, too? Damn!
It’s your life but making eye contact and waiting for the cars to stop would be the smart thing to do. I guess it depends how much you value your life. But like you said hindsight is a wonderful thing. Knowledge for next time
Holy shit OB, I’ll up you one. I almost got hit twice OUTSIDE of a cross walk. I wasn’t even cycling at the time. I remember that morning well though. I got Irish Spring soap in my goddamn eye in the shower. What made it worse is that I was washing my face and the soap bar slipped so my reaction was to inflict a death grip on it as I detest dropping the soap. Not because of the silly jailhouse games, but because the soap bar gets dented on at least one corner and that drives me fucking crazy.
So anyway, the tight grip caused the soap to slide and accelerate and get me right in the eye. Got all swollen up and it looked like pink eye. My girlfriend had also stopped rubbing her ass on my pillow at this point, so there was no chance of it being pink eye.
Long story short, washclothes are very helpful to me now.