Pedestrians - RANT

Bill said:
Hmm, irrational fear. Some quick googling reveals:

Number of pedestrians killed by vehicles in the US per year: ~6500

Number of people killed by snakes in the US per year: ~5

Yeah, walking in the middle of the road is a GREAT idea...
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See, it really works!

Nauga,
and badger badger badger
 
Deelee said:
I live in a neighborhood with sidewalks along every road, street, cul-de-sac, drive, court... you name it. If it is a paved, drivable surface, there is a nice, well-maintained sidewalk on either side of it. The kind of sidewalk that should be ever so inviting to pedestrians out for their mid-day strolls. The kind of concrete ribbon that just screams - "Hey! You! Walking-person! Why not walk on me? Look how well-maintained and pedestrian-friendly I am!"

Why, then, do I encounter half-a-dozen foot mobile humans striding at a walking pace on the (side usually, sometimes in the middle!) of the road every day on my way to the gym? I'm not talking about a one-off person who may be confused about the purpose of a sidewalk. I am talking about many, many fellow neighbours who decide to use the road to plod along instead of the sidewalk. Some of them don't even use the side of the road. They use the part of the road normally reserved for powered vehicles that could, if improperly operated, make them into a pedestrian-pancake.

Is this a common thing? Do people like the way the road feels under their feet as opposed to the concrete of the sidewalk? Is this some sort of COVID thing that I am not aware of (social distancing from other pedestrians?)??

Whatever the reason, it's getting dangerous. I should probably post this petty gripe on one of the local neighbourhood moms facebook pages where it belongs. But since it is a rant, I figured its rightful place was here.
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Most sidewalks aren't wide enough to maintain a 2m distance when passing people walking the opposite direction, especially when there are two people approacing you walking side-by-side. Since March 2020, a lot of pedestrians have been forced out onto the road just to stay safe.

But even before the pandemic, sidewalks were very problematic for some people. They slope sharply towards the road for every driveway or parking-lot entrance. My jogging days are behind me now, but I often injured my ankles and knees from the repetitive strain of the sudden sidewalk drops — the road makes a much better running surface.

In the winter, roads are often plowed, sanded, and salted before sidewalks (if the sidewalks are ever cleared at all). Elderly and disabled people will choose to walk on the road to reduce the risk of a serious slip-fall injury. Even in places without snow, wet leaves can have the same effect.

And finally, women will often choose to walk out on the road rather than the sidewalk when there aren't many people around (especially, but not exclusively, at night) to give them more time to react and flee from sexual predators. That's something that men like me don't often think about, but if you're a woman, it's always on your mind. :(
 
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RANT

Righteous
Antagonistic
Nonsensical
Taunt

done quickly... I'm sure other people can come up with (or plagarize) better ones.
 
Realistic
Assessment of
Nuisance
Things
 
How 'bout pedestrians in shopping center parking lots? Especially families walking marching line abreast taking up the entire driving road- part of a lane.
 
Cap'n Jack said:
How 'bout pedestrians in shopping center parking lots? Especially families walking marching line abreast taking up the entire driving road- part of a lane.
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I’ve never had that joggers and walkers in the street problem. Now ya go me riled up. What’s worse is one person diddy boppin down the middle. I think the only thing stopping me sometimes is it’s against the law and I don’t want to go to jail.
 
How about people that drive through parking lots at 45 MPH? How much time do you need to save going that fast for 200 feet?
 
@Everskyward - What is a Karen?

I assume it's some kind of acceptable insult for a group of people, but I don't know which group. And I always want the acceptable insult at hand.
 
Ravioli said:
@Everskyward - What is a Karen?

I assume it's some kind of acceptable insult for a group of people, but I don't know which group. And I always want the acceptable insult at hand.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_(pejorative)

"Karen is a pejorative term for a woman seeming to be entitled or demanding beyond the scope of what is normal. The term also refers to memes depicting White women who use their privilege to demand their own way"

edit: it's debatable how "acceptable" such a label is...
 
Cap'n Jack said:
How 'bout pedestrians in shopping center parking lots? Especially families walking marching line abreast taking up the entire driving road- part of a lane
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You must live in my neighbourhood.

pedestrians here have no fear when they are in a shopping centre parking lot. They become invincible. They don’t even look when stepping off the curb (not in a crosswalk) with their self-brought hemp bags full of organic produce. Very privileged, these walkers.
 
Deelee said:
I like this very much!

[This may spawn another rant thread. Super annoying when the motor-vehicle in front of you depresses the windshield-washer-fluid-dispenser for an extended period of time thus dousing the trailing vehicle with soap-product}
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I encountered such a vehicle the other day...while behind it on my motorcycle. I don’t know what he was trying to clean off, but judging by the quantity of spray and duration of wiper usage, it had to be something larger than a cow.
 
bnt83 said:
Encourage them to use the sidewalks by activating the windshield washer as you pass by. Heaven forbid your washer nozzle was poorly aimed for windshield cleaning.
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A friend in college rigged up a movable turret with a fine-stream nozzle on his car on the passenger side washer nozzle, controlled by an old Nintendo controller inside the car.

good times...
 
Omalley1537 said:
I encountered such a vehicle the other day...while behind it on my motorcycle. I don’t know what he was trying to clean off, but judging by the quantity of spray and duration of wiper usage, it had to be something larger than a cow.
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Stop tailgating ;-)
 
Bob Noel said:
motorcycle or bicycle?
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Bicycle

Omalley1537 said:
I encountered such a vehicle the other day...while behind it on my motorcycle. I don’t know what he was trying to clean off, but judging by the quantity of spray and duration of wiper usage, it had to be something larger than a cow.
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I was being tailgated by Harley being driven by a toothless neanderthal and his rubenesque girlfriend, while I was going about 10-15 over the speed limit. They didn't appreciate the efforts I was putting in towards cleaning my windshield. They passed me all angry when the road went from 2 to 4 lanes, and proceeded to go the speed limit in the right lane.

Uhhh.....what?
 
Groundpounder said:
Bicycle
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Good luck getting the self-righteous bicyclist to understand the difference between share the road and hog the road (I'm not saying all bicyclists are self-righteous oxygen-thieves).
 
Deelee said:
You must live in my neighbourhood.

pedestrians here have no fear when they are in a shopping centre parking lot. They become invincible. They don’t even look when stepping off the curb (not in a crosswalk) with their self-brought hemp bags full of organic produce. Very privileged, these walkers.
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Around here, they don't need the fancy bags or produce.
 
Bob Noel said:
Good luck getting the self-righteous bicyclist to understand the difference between share the road and hog the road (I'm not saying all bicyclists are self-righteous oxygen-thieves).
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I think the Lycra cuts off blood flow to their brain.
 
Van Johnston said:
Sounds like we are in violent agreement.

"https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/community/threads/pedestrians-rant.131994/page-2#post-3082534"
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Bwahahahahahaaaa!!! Of course.

I may be guilty of pressing "quote->reply" imediately... and not reading the thread. Running was a thing back in the day. I spent a lot of time around folks who did a lot of it... and I tried to help them do it better. hahahaha.... We didn't have the interwebs readily available to kill the notion, but I never could hear someone talk about running on concrete vs asphalt without laughing inside.
 
Bob Noel said:
Good luck getting the self-righteous bicyclist to understand the difference between share the road and hog the road (I'm not saying all bicyclists are self-righteous oxygen-thieves).
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fair - there are a ton of Richard Riders on two wheels. but.... even though in most states, cyclist must ride as close as is practicable and safe to the right side of the roadway, they do have the lane, and riding on the line or the shoulder is neither safe nor practicable. Cyclists should always leave the left side of the lane open. If you ride the line or the shoulder, you increase the chances of a couple of very undesirable outcomes.
1) You cut a tire or go down because of debris (roadway shoulders collect and retain all debris from the roadway - and as cars are whizzing by your 8 inches to the left and you can't dodge said debris.) Does your head go flopping about under a passing car? Who knows, once the wheels stop tracking straight, you're not in control anymore.

2) More frequent: When a rider is on the shoulder or the lane marker, motorists feel like they can "slide by" the cyclist without giving room in the lane. Motorist bumps cyclist, cyclist goes down and gets a (not free) bus ride, and all too often the motorist keeps on truckin'.

Riding through stop lights, lane blocking... all bad behavior by cyclists. I hate it.
 
Places where people live should be more people focused than car focused. A place with a ton of sidewalks and bike paths sounds great.
 
UngaWunga said:
Places where people live should be more people focused than car focused. A place with a ton of sidewalks and bike paths sounds great.
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Sounds great... for some areas of the country. Others, without taking down existing buildings and houses, you can't create such space.
 
UngaWunga said:
A place with a ton of sidewalks and bike paths sounds great
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In my neighbourhood and surrounding area, we have both sidewalks and bike paths a-plenty. Sidewalks so pristine and walk-able. Bike paths along many of our busy motor-ways!

Yet... driving yesterday, what did I see? A beautiful bike path (asphalt, no less!) on the side of a four lane hi-way... So inviting to our two-wheeled peddlers. But what did I encounter? A tight-spandex-clad individual living out his Tour De France fantasies hogging the entire right lane of the car thoroughfare! Why? It makes no sense to me. A perfect asphalt ribbon designed for bikes and human walkers, yet this person decided to use the lane obviously designed for combustion-powered vehicles.

Do they do this to **** off motorists? Maybe were told as a child to go play in traffic, so they are getting revenge on their parents by actually riding in traffic? There must be some deep-rooted psychological explanation for this deviant behaviour.
 
You seem very angry. As a bicycle rider, sometimes its safer to ride on the road than the "bike lane" because of walkers, people with 20' dog leashes, people with headphones not paying attention, etc. If you want to go above 10mph, its difficult to do so on a bike lane. So the edge of the pavement it is, then. If I'm pushing my speed to get a good workout, I'm averaging 19-22mph depending on the terrain. And sometimes I need to get off the shoulder of the road to avoid broken glass/potholes/sewer drains/etc.
 
Bob Noel said:
Sounds great... for some areas of the country. Others, without taking down existing buildings and houses, you can't create such space.
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Yeah, because of development without planning for people vs cars.
 
UngaWunga said:
You seem very angry
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Nah. I'm a pretty happy guy. Just don't understand why people need to ride their pedal-bikes on the space designed for cars when there is a lane provided just for them. I'm not talking about the sidewalk vs. road, here. I am talking about an actual paved bike lane that parallels the four lane divided highway. And that people on non-motorized, two wheeled vehicles choose to use the motor-vehicle lane instead of the lane provided specifically for their use.

UngaWunga said:
sometimes its safer to ride on the road than the "bike lane" because of walkers, people with 20' dog leashes, people with headphones not paying attention, etc. If you want to go above 10mph, its difficult to do so on a bike lane. So the edge of the pavement it is, then.
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So I guess if I am not happy with the cell-phone-distracted-drivers, slow drivers, or tailgaters, it would be ok to use the bike lane in my motor-vehicle?
 
UngaWunga said:
You seem very angry. As a bicycle rider, sometimes its safer to ride on the road than the "bike lane" because of walkers, people with 20' dog leashes, people with headphones not paying attention, etc. If you want to go above 10mph, its difficult to do so on a bike lane. So the edge of the pavement it is, then. If I'm pushing my speed to get a good workout, I'm averaging 19-22mph depending on the terrain. And sometimes I need to get off the shoulder of the road to avoid broken glass/potholes/sewer drains/etc.
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Very true, I urban commute by bicycle during the summer months, and although it is legal to ride bicycles on the sidewalks in our city, it's not really a safe thing to do. So, I keep as far right as possible, but like @UngaWunga , we sometimes have to move left into the lane to avoid debris and bad pavement. Rest assured, I get my ass back to the right as soon as possible, no need to **** people off for no reason.

When I ride downtown with my wife, she insists on riding in the middle of the car lane, saying she'll move right when a car comes. I tell her to keep right then you don't have to worry as much about it but, wives lol.
 
Deelee said:
In my neighbourhood and surrounding area, we have both sidewalks and bike paths a-plenty. Sidewalks so pristine and walk-able. Bike paths along many of our busy motor-ways!

Yet... driving yesterday, what did I see? A beautiful bike path (asphalt, no less!) on the side of a four lane hi-way... So inviting to our two-wheeled peddlers. But what did I encounter? A tight-spandex-clad individual living out his Tour De France fantasies hogging the entire right lane of the car thoroughfare! Why? It makes no sense to me. A perfect asphalt ribbon designed for bikes and human walkers, yet this person decided to use the lane obviously designed for combustion-powered vehicles.

Do they do this to **** off motorists? Maybe were told as a child to go play in traffic, so they are getting revenge on their parents by actually riding in traffic? There must be some deep-rooted psychological explanation for this deviant behaviour.
Click to expand...

What is so triggering to you about having to share the roadway with others? If the worst struggle that you have to overcome during your day is slowing down to pass cyclists, your life is okay.

And I’m curious about the spandex and TDF comment. Is every adult male in a football or basketball jersey offensive to you as well? They must be delusional living out their NBA and NFL fantasies.
 
UngaWunga said:
Yeah, because of development without planning for people vs cars.
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ok, but a lot of the country was developed a long long long time ago. For example, where was this concern for cars vs people 100 years ago?
 
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