To the driver who laid on the horn and screamed at me on Main Ave Thursday night: Go fuck yourself.
Yes, I was walking in the road. Main Ave only has sidewalks on one side of the street. I got off the bus on the side without sidewalks, and my options were to A; try to dart across a busy street in the middle of the block in the dark, or B; walk in the street to the crosswalk at the end of the block. I suppose I could have attempted to walk along top of the three foot high half frozen snowbank beside the road, but chances were pretty high I would have fallen OFF said snowbank and INTO the road. So again I say, Go fuck yourself.
Drivers bitch and moan about pedestrians doing unsafe things, but most of them have No Fucking Idea what it’s like to walk further than from the house to the car. And they have absolutely no comprehension of the fact that very often, especially in the winter, there is NO SAFE OPTION available to us.
—Main Avenue Speed Bump
This article appears in Feb 26 – Mar 4, 2009.
It’s like that in the BLIP. When I leave my work place, I have to walk across a car park, then cross the street at Dairy Queen, and continue to walk on the road towards the bus stop before Zellers. There’s no pavement on either side, and there are snowbanks taller than me. I get yelled at, and I get the horn blown at me.
One time I yelled “Does it look like there’s pavement around? No. Fuck you.” and the woman just looked around to confirm my correctness, and the fact that she’s a complete twat, then looked away and drove off.
😀
On one of the warm days last week, I was walking on the Bedford Highway. Because of the snowbanks on either side of the sidewalk, there was no place for the melting snow to go, and the sidewalk between the Mount and Bayview was an ankle deep river of slush and icy water. About halfway, I came to a place where the water was almost knee deep. If I had stepped in it, it would have been over the top of my boots. It was much too far to jump. I thought about walking all the way back to the Mount where there was a bus stop, but I didn’t even have money in my pocket to get on the bus. The only way to get by it was to climb over the snowbank and walk on the side of the Bedford Highway for several meters. Many drivers refused to move into the other lane as they passed me, even though it was empty. They just glared at me as they whizzed past me inches to my left at 80 km/h. It was terrifying! But there was nothing else I could do.
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again.
It’s winter and this is Canada. Drivers and pedestrians need to realise this.
Drivers: Don’t take your frustrations out on the pedestrians because they are on the road. Slow down. You shouldn’t be driving fast anyhow.
Pedestrians: Get better footwear. I have huge boots and ice grips that I can add as needed. WG, I know what your are talking about. Those are unavoidable situations and I feel sorry for you. But, I can’t count the number of times I have seen people on the road in my neighbourhood when the sidewalks are navigable with a decent pair of boots. However, some people (girls mostly) feel the need to wear flats all year round.
It seems like no one wants to stop for people in the crosswalk these days – twice this week it happened to me on Barrington and twice I yelled at the fuckers who both looked at me like the goddamn open-mouthed retards they are.
UGH I KNOWWWWW TTFN.
The other day I almost got smacked by a bus in front of SMU because the fuckwad who was driving it didn’t stop when i was already in the middle of the cross walk crossing. A half second later and I would’ve been road kill. And yes I pressed the light button and yes it’s a busy cross walk so it’s not rocket science to be a bit more cautious around that cross walk especially when it’s dark out and the lights are flashing and it’s a VERY well used cross walk….and you’re a FUCKING BUS. They stop at railway crossings! They’re supposed to be the friendly drivers out there, not the typical asshole driver who has no regard for anyone else out on the road!
Ironically, the bus that almost creamed me was the bus I was crossing to get. He was early, and fucked off before I got across to get on the bus. So I had to wait another half hour in the pitch dark all by myself and I missed my connection and had to wait almost 45 minutes at Lacewood in the dark by myself 🙁
Asswipe.