RANT: What's up with the stupid pedestrians tonight?

[GAnative]

Is it a full moon? On the way home I was on California at Edmonds and watched 2 twenty-something girls run across Edmonds on a green light and almost get run over by a Miata. Then had to run to Safeway and was on 42nd headed south at Alaska and 2 teenage boys walked across in front of me when I had the green. And then on the way home, again at 42nd and Alaska, but headed north and 2 twenty-something boys ran across in front of me when I had the green light.

Really? Is everyone just looking to get run over tonight?

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[Irukandji]

I’d have to say YES. And it’s not confined to WS. I had a guy just yesterday walk out in front of a car with a green light, jump back, then walk out in front of mine. I hit the breaks just as the light changed to yellow. The guy had the cajones to approach my window and say, “Oh yeah, sorry about that.” Seems with little else to do, this fifty-something dude was back to the ol’ high-school ‘you can’t make me follow the rules’ tact. Asshat, nearly a dead asshat.

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[Blend]

teenage girls = 15 points each

middle aged man = 5 points

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[miws]

We need to figure out how to team these pedestrians up with the car drivers that; run red lights, go flying into/through crosswalks in an attempt to take their “free” right turn on red, while pedestrians are crossing, or at least trying to, with the WALK light, and those drivers that blast out of business parking lots onto/across the sidewalk, while people are walking along it.

If we could do that, they’d both have the satisfaction of playing “chicken”

with each other, and the rest of us that are just trying to go about our business in a safe, prudent and legal manner, no matter what our mode of locomotion.

Mike

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[Smitty]

miws,

I would love nothing more than to have two idiots speed through an uncontrolled intersection at the same time. “What? I thought YOU had to slow down, dude?”

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[SomeGuy]

Two days ago, a seemingly sane man started to jaywalk right in front of me WHILE PUSHING A STROLLER. I stopped quickly and I’m sure he read my lips quite clearly: “Jackass.”

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[Ken]

It goes the other way too. I noticed at least a half dozen speeders on 4th ave in front of the courthouse, wildly blowing their horn at people who had stopped half way through a turn to wait for pedestrians who had the walk light. It was bizarre enough to notice.

I thought it was a new moon.

http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=www.calculatorcat.com/gmodules/current_moon.xml&mkhp=1&source=moha

It was however Bastille Day

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastille_Day

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[Al]

Have any of you experienced the downtown jaywalkers lately? It’s terrible! I was driving with my MIL and we had to stop at several green lights because peds just decided to amble (not skedaddle, or move quickly, or run) across the street. These aren’t teenagers but your normal run of the mill regular folks.

While on my bike commuting home I have to be especially careful because they can’t hear me coming and don’t expect me to be moving so quickly if the do see me. Been stepped in front of several times this week alone.

It’s just total chaos and I have altered my driving/riding accordingly.

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[JoB]

all part of the same pattern…

get away with what you can

while everyone else has to go out of their way to ensure your safety…

we gotta change this

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[josie2006]

On a similar note, I’m always amazed by pedestrians who feel so strongly about their right of way that they put themselves at risk to prove it, walking out when the light changes without checking for cars, etc. In the battle of car vs. pedestrian, the pedestrian will always be the one who gets physically harmed, even if they had the right of way. It is not worth risking your life! Proceed with caution. As for the jaywalkers, that’s just dumb.

This will probably start a debate, but what’s the general consensus on bicyclists who jump from street to sidewalk and back in order to get around stopped traffic (cutting off pedestrians along the way)? Is this really ok?

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[austin]

Like the previous poster points out, it’s cars and the people who drive them that are the real hazard.

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[Franci]

josie2006

That is one of my personal pet peeves – I’m fine with cyclists in general, but the ones that flip between pedestrian rules and road rules with little to no warning is dangerous for everyone; the cyclist, the pedestrian, and the driver.

My other pet peeve is the jaywalkers in front of Thriftway. Its hard enough to get out of that parking lot and head south on California just watching for cars. I’ve had pedestrians dart in front of me at night when its raining.. just crazy. There is a cross walk right there – its not like they have to walk blocks out of their way to get to one.

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[SarahScoot]

Speaking of Thriftway, *my* pet peeve was always playing chicken with the drivers not paying enough attention to realize that there was a pedestrian on the sidewalk intersecting the parking lot entrances/exits. Until moving six months ago, I had to walk that route every day to and from the 54X stop, and had to be ridiculously vigilant in order to not get plowed down by distracted drivers in a hurry to leave or go to the store.

As Mike pointed out, a huge issue is drivers like that, or their counterparts who seem to only care about threats to their own safety (like larger vehicles). They don’t even pause at the “stop” lines in intersections, plowing into the crosswalk and only stopping when they’re nearing vehicle traffic, getting ready for their right on red. This forces us pedestrians to walk either beyond the nose of the car or behind the back of it; both options are quite dangerous as they either put the pedestrian perilously close to oncoming traffic, or hide them from the line of sight for other drivers.

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[anonyme]

While downtown yesterday I was rather amazed at the number of pedestrians cruising across the intersections against the lights. Sometimes this activity can be blamed on tourists, but these folks looked kinda local — like they were on lunch hour, not vacation.

As a very careful pedestrian I have had numerous near-death experiences while attempting to legally cross Seattle streets, including a trip to Harborview in an ambulance after being creamed by a bicycle cop downtown. Sometimes pedestrians have to be defiant just to be able to get across the street at all & I’m talking about controlled crosswalks. Uncontrolled crosswalks (any two intersecting corners per the RCW) are nearly impossible. Could it just be an increase in defiance of the law by all parties? This observation has been made in several threads lately.

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[josie2006]

I wonder if the individuals who are behaving badly, or defying the law, do so whether they are walking or driving. Some people just do not think rules apply to them.

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