Idiot pedestrians A RANT

[fish-fighting-illini]

 Man I hate store parking lots anymore.

They all have those marked crosswalks and people will walk out of a store without ever stopping or so much as looking up. I've seen them walk all the way across and never even look to the side.

How do they know I hadn't started to enter the crosswalk right before they exited the building? Geeez peole are just plain stupid!

 A city street has a crosswalk would they just walk out into traffic w/o looking up?

Thanks I feel a little better

FFI - AKA Matt Crum

[CFFF 1.5]

Parking lots are a little bit different than a regular street cross walk. First you shouldn't really be going any faster than 5 mph in a parking lot so you aren't looking for a car that is 30 to 50 yards away that could hit you before you get across the street. Any car that is traveling around 5 mph you would be able to see with your perfferial (sp?) vision and be safe to cross the parking lot. Also you should be expecting and watching for many more people crossing a parking lot crosswalk than a regular street crosswalk.

[Maxximus Redneckus]

Certain PEOPLE around here dont know how to use a POSTED crosswalk on the highway mainly around traffic lights they will walk up from or down from a crosswalk WITH FLOWING traffic and think they have right of way ...O well a few get hit maybe in 50 yrs that dummy gene(5000 lbs vs 180 lbs) will be gone from there small minds

[SMSRTC]

True, parking lots are different, but it's not too smart to assume everyone is obeying the speed limit.  One of my many pet peeves is people speeding throught parking lots, especially when they are cutting across parking spaces or going the wrong way.  For some reason, many people seem to think that regular rules of the road don't apply in parking lots, so directional arrows and painted lines are just suggestions (heck, maybe they are just suggestions, but I follow  them anyway).

I get more annoyed by people that see you waiting for them to cross, and they just slowly stroll along (and I'm talking apparently healthy people, not elderly or disabled).  I remember one kid that I stopped  for that slowed his walk and stared at me the entire time he crossed.  Personally, I make an effort to walk faster when there is traffic waiting on me.

[Fishing Rhino]

I assume (something one should never do) you are talking about places like Walmart.

There is a simple solution.  Do not drive through the pedestrian zone.  It can be avoided in every Walmart parking lot I've been in.

Except for the one nearest us, the entrance from the street takes you through the parking lot, not directly to the store entrance.  Even in that store, you can avoid the pedestrian zone by turning off into the parking area before you get to it.

It may add a few seconds to your route to a parking spot, but will save aggravation, and probably time, in the long run.

[Sam]

many years ago, a study was done on this topic.

they found that if you do not look at the drivers, the cars will stop or slow down for you as you cross the road.

if you make eye contact with the drivers, the drivers will not stop.

try it in a parking lot.  it works.   ;D

[fish-fighting-illini]

A) I don't speed in parking lots prob 5mph just like you

I obey the arrows and signs

C) 95% of the time I take the outer drive and don't go near the cross walks for this very problem.

D) I too despise rekless drivers in lots.

 I probably wouldn't be going fast enough to hurt anyone. If I were to start to take off from a stop sign people ( at a brisk pace ) will just stroll right out in front of someone.

 I'm not sure how it wold play out but these are not city streets just parking lots so I'm not sure how the rules of the road would come into play.

 My real point is even though in a very slow zone I'm just surprised at how people will just come briskly walking out w/o even stoppiing to look. In some cases they never even look up. It just seems really stupid on their part. I think you'd be surprised at the small field of view in general and how little time their is to react. If you were already moving and someone came walking out without so much as hesitating I think you'd be surprised at how easy it would be to hit someone.

 Take a closer look the next time and see what you think.

[Tokyo Tony]

Just kick it into neutral, hit the gas, watch the pedestrian's reaction, then laugh your ace off  

Note: Make very very sure you're in neutral.

[Branuss04]

Well I'll tell a story from the pedestrian side of this post..

I almost died earlier this week while crossing a crosswalk.  Let me start off by saying this intersection has 12 signs all together regarding pedestrians and the cross walk.  5 of which are located on the side I was on.  They all say "Watch for Pedestrians when turning right".  Or STOP HERE: Then look for Pedestrians.  There are even flashing lights built into the ground along the crosswalk to get drivers attention when peds are crossing.  It's pretty high tech... but is much needed as this road connects downtown Sacramento with Old Town Sacramento.

So with that said, I was walking back to my work after my lunchtime walk.  I waited at the crosswalk waiting for my ped. light to signal me it's "Ok" to cross.  This is one of those intersections that a car must be in the crosswalk to see if there is oncoming traffic before turning right, but there are signs saying stop here first before turning.  So anyway, It turns on and I look to make sure no cars are coming and start across.  As I get to the halfway point I notice a white car coming pretty fast towards me. I'm at that point where there is no turning back and making eye contact isn't helping as the driver is fulling engaged in a text messaging conversation on her cell phone.  Obviously this chick doesn't see the 4ftX4ft sign saying stop here before turning right.   At this point she has no intentions of stopping BEFORE the crosswalk as the sign states, so it's either get hit, or make a move, so I take two quick steps to get out of the way, but still couldn't get out of the way quick enough, so I jump up in the air, and land on this chicks hood right when she glances up from her phone and steps on the brakes.

Luckily I wasn't hurt at all, but I did leave a fat dent on the hood.  So this chick comes out screaming in Korean or Chinese, or some language I don't understand... and I'm like great, this is just a bad situation.. but LUCKILY, there just happened to be an off duty cop on the other side of the road that saw EVERYTHING  ;D.   He asked me if I wanted to pursue charges for attempted vehicular something...l don't remember the term.  But it wasn't worth it.  She was already getting a ticket for being on a cell phone (Found out it was her 3rd charge for that), and the hood was pretty messed up... so she got what she deserved and I was fine.  But it was pretty scary stuff.  There are some stupid drivers out there

[Palomar]

When they don't hold on to their kids is what kills me! They just let those toddlers run wild now-a-days >

[Palomar]

many years ago, a study was done on this topic.

they found that if you do not look at the drivers, the cars will stop or slow down for you as you cross the road.

if you make eye contact with the drivers, the drivers will not stop.

try it in a parking lot. it works. ;D

Let me watch you try it first ;D

[Sam]

i do it all the time.

give it a try in a parking lot.

[Micro]

How about when you are backing out of a parking space.  You are almost all the way out and some idiot tries to squeeze between the rear of your car and some other car you are backing towards.  Morons.

[grimlin]

How about when you are backing out of a parking space. You are almost all the way out and some idiot tries to squeeze between the rear of your car and some other car you are backing towards. Morons.

Happens every time to me....I'm talking every single time.One of my biggest reason i park way in the back now.

One of my accidents came like that..No damage to my car,but i dinked his door.He didn't have a driver's license or insurance.I was going to call the cops and he said "no,forget about it".He just took off,fast.

I coulda swore i looked 3 times left,right and behind me(repeat)...there was nobody there! I don't know how fast he came up behind me.

Correct me if I'm wrong...but usually the people backing out is at fault?

[Maxximus Redneckus]

How about when you are backing out of a parking space. You are almost all the way out and some idiot tries to squeeze between the rear of your car and some other car you are backing towards. Morons.

Happens every time to me....I'm talking every single time.One of my biggest reason i park way in the back now.

One of my accidents came like that..No damage to my car,but i dinked his door.He didn't have a driver's license or insurance.I was going to call the cops and he said "no,forget about it".He just took off,fast.

I coulda swore i looked 3 times left,right and behind me(repeat)...there was nobody there! I don't know how fast he came up behind me.

Correct me if I'm wrong...but usually the people backing out is at fault?

If your already moving you have right of way BUT as said before ppl in P lots drive 30 mph so LOL no way u can see um while backing up  till after the fact anyhow

[aarogb]

    I guess you could say that I am stupid.  I cross without looking all the time.

     :

[SMSRTC]

Posted by: fish-fighting-illini Posted on: Today at 7:23am

A) I don't speed in parking lots prob 5mph just like you

I obey the arrows and signs

C) 95% of the time I take the outer drive and don't go near the cross walks for this very problem.

D) I too despise rekless drivers in lots.

Sorry if you thought I was trying to imply that you did any of those.  My post about assuming people obeyed the rules was in response to CFFF 1.5.

As for the post about the study saying if you don't look at the drivers, they are more likely to stop:  I'm betting that doesn't work if they aren't paying attention.  Hopefully they won't be speeding as well as texting.

[fish-fighting-illini]

Hey no problem Sarge my reaction was a little over the top. I don't even remember who typed what. No big deal.

As far as whomever posted about the kids you might have a point but a mother with a full load of groceries, a purse and a couple of kids is tough. Always assume at any moment that a young child will bolt. It happened last year near here. A 3 yr old was standing at a corner with a grandparent and for no reason pulled their hand away from the grndparent and just bolted out into the street. The child was killed by a semi. Toddlers and young kids are just unpredictable.

PS this was mainly about parking lots and ones similar to Walmart but most are similar.

[Dan:]

Well I'll tell a story from the pedestrian side of this post..

I almost died earlier this week while crossing a crosswalk. Let me start off by saying this intersection has 12 signs all together regarding pedestrians and the cross walk. 5 of which are located on the side I was on. They all say "Watch for Pedestrians when turning right". Or STOP HERE: Then look for Pedestrians. There are even flashing lights built into the ground along the crosswalk to get drivers attention when peds are crossing. It's pretty high tech... but is much needed as this road connects downtown Sacramento with Old Town Sacramento.

So with that said, I was walking back to my work after my lunchtime walk. I waited at the crosswalk waiting for my ped. light to signal me it's "Ok" to cross. This is one of those intersections that a car must be in the crosswalk to see if there is oncoming traffic before turning right, but there are signs saying stop here first before turning. So anyway, It turns on and I look to make sure no cars are coming and start across. As I get to the halfway point I notice a white car coming pretty fast towards me. I'm at that point where there is no turning back and making eye contact isn't helping as the driver is fulling engaged in a text messaging conversation on her cell phone. Obviously this chick doesn't see the 4ftX4ft sign saying stop here before turning right. At this point she has no intentions of stopping BEFORE the crosswalk as the sign states, so it's either get hit, or make a move, so I take two quick steps to get out of the way, but still couldn't get out of the way quick enough, so I jump up in the air, and land on this chicks hood right when she glances up from her phone and steps on the brakes.

Luckily I wasn't hurt at all, but I did leave a fat dent on the hood. So this chick comes out screaming in Korean or Chinese, or some language I don't understand... and I'm like great, this is just a bad situation.. but LUCKILY, there just happened to be an off duty cop on the other side of the road that saw EVERYTHING ;D. He asked me if I wanted to pursue charges for attempted vehicular something...l don't remember the term. But it wasn't worth it. She was already getting a ticket for being on a cell phone (Found out it was her 3rd charge for that), and the hood was pretty messed up... so she got what she deserved and I was fine. But it was pretty scary stuff. There are some stupid drivers out there

If i found out that was her third offense I definitely would have pressed charges. She obviously isn't learning anything from getting tickets. I hope she doesn't have to learn her lesson by killing someone.