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are places where pedestrians should have the right of way

Pedestrians have the right of way in every situation. Car vs. pedestrians, the pedestrian wins, hands down. Unless of course they're attempting to cross a freeway where pedestrians aren't allowed.

Awesome.. when did this forum get so funny?

Random Complaint: I hate random complaints

Random complaint:

I hate people complaining.

random complaint: I hate people who drive 40 in a 55, and keep going 40 through the villages where the limit is 30.

Random complaint:

I hate it when people insist on driving 40 mph on the freeway just because it's raining. And they don't even have their headlights on, which is against the law in California.

I also hate people who don't use their signals.

And people who don't stop completely at stops signs.

And people who drive below the speed limit in the fast lane and don't get over.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

yeah fantastic game.

i loved carmageddon

kinda off topic but has anyone here played "Carmageddon"

-Best Game EVER...

Anyway you cant blame cars, its the people you should blame

I'm with Koi. I live outside the city so I need a car to get places.
It seems though that there have been so many more accidents in the past couple months. Almost everyday here there is an accident on the highway where someone gets killed. It scares me because the one today and one a couple days ago someone came across the highway and hit ongoing traffic. In that situation you really can't avoid it unless you see them and get out of the way in time, if that is possible. I have to drive on the highway every day to and from work.
Two of my close friends have both been in accidents in the past month. Neither of them were injured though, but both totalled their cars. In one accident an older lady ran a stop sign and hit my friend. I think she was 82 or around that age. So many older people are still driving, and not very safely.
You have to not only be safe yourself, but pay attention to other people. Driving defensively is the way to go because you can't control how other people drive, only watch out for them. I am not scared to drive, just cautious. There are so many people out there not paying attention. :%)

*Kristin*

I cannot survive without a car, but that is partially because I choose to live out in the country away from everyone.

We all have choices, we cannot control what others choose. They chose to step out at that time, or turn in front of you.

Yep it would be terrible to kill another person in a car or walking, but as much as you, they chose to be there at that time.

They also choose what they drive. I choose to drive the biggest, safest vehicle I can find, and it weighs 8,000 lbs empty. The car that hits me head on, they chose that car. They can make the choice to surround themselves with tons of sheetmetal like myself, or 2,000 lbs worth of plastic. That was their choice.

Patience, caution, and curtousy are the best you can do, but if something does happen, it is not entirely your fault. They made their choices, and we all make bad ones from time to time. Who is to say you are not the one that will die? Not our choice at all.

Public transportation really isn't any safer. When I drive I am in control of my life. Not just along for the ride.

I need that feeling.


Last edited by Koi's Man at 21-Dec-2005 21:49

This is a pretty sombre subject, but I'm feeling kind of sad right now.

Why do we all worry so much about the potential dangers of bombs and other people, when people are dying or being hurt by the thousands in car accidents? I know manufacturers try to make cars safer, I know road rules are in place to try to solve problems of potential accidents, but so often I just wish the things were never invented at all.

I don't know anyone whose lives have not been affected, either directly or indirectly, by car accidents. My partner grew up fatherless because his dad died in a car accident when he was young. My mother has been more or less crippled for most of her life after nearly losing her foot in an accident. I was almost killed, and suffered permanent injuries, when I was hit by a car earlier this year. Just a few months ago, my three closest friends were in a major accident, landing them all in hospital and one with internal injuries. Three weeks ago, my brother-in-law's brother was made a paraplegic through an accident, and now I've had an email from a colleague telling me that one of her close friends was killed in a car crash over the weekend. So much tragedy, and all so we can get to where we want to go a little faster and more comfortably.

I don't drive a car myself, because I can't stand the idea of being responsible for hurting or killing someone else. I don't feel comfortable being in operation of such a potentially deadly weapon. I get by on public transport for the most part, but I know eventually I'm going to have to deal with it, because modern society is designed for cars and you can only avoid that for so long.

Has anyone else ever worried about this? How do you deal with it?

EDITED TO ADD: On that note, everyone please be super-careful if you're driving anywhere over the holidays.

Last edited by just beginning at 19-Dec-2005 19:37

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. - Oscar Wilde

Heh yeah I don't particularly like driving, hence why I still do not ahve a driver's license even though I have been eligible for one for three years already. But still I must deal with it, and am slowly getting used to being behind the wheel, though I ams till far to defensive .

as for the pedestrian thing, I think there are certai places were cars just shouldn't be going over crosswalk the way they do. Schools, eighborhoods, malls, etc. are places where pedestrians should have the right of way, and often times lower speedlimits are put in to further accentuate this point. Yet people still cruise through malls and the like as if they were main highwyas, despite the heavy pedestrian flow. At times like this I do not mind at all jsut stepping on to the crosswalk focing the driver to slam on the brakes, If they get angry I wave and smile ^_^. though I do take caution and do it only if I know the car can stop.

I'm not sure what pedestrian crossing rules are here (except, well, stop if there's someone on one, how I wish that man had obeyed THAT rule the day I was crossing) but I know a lot of drivers are pretty oblivious to them sometimes. Many people don't even slow if there's no-one on the crossing right then - disregarding the fact that if someone was to suddenly step onto it, they may not be able to stop in time. I've had drivers beep their horns or yell at me to hurry up on crossings if I'm taking longer than they think they should, or if I wait to make sure they have seen me and are going to stop before I step onto it. I feel like going up to them and explaining everything that has happened to me since I was hit on a crossing, tell them exactly how much it hurt and then show them how my shoulder no longer moves as it's supposed to.

By the same token, some pedestrians are unbelievably blase about crossings - they seem to believe that those white and black stripes act as some sort of protective shield from which cars will bounce off harmlessly. People just walk out without the slightest hesitation, even if a car is coming at speed and has to stop fairly suddenly to avoid running into them.

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. - Oscar Wilde

There's a new law here trying to protect pedestrians in crosswalks, requiring drivers to yield if someone so much as sets a foot into the walkway, and not move until the pedestrian has crossed halfway.

The law here that has been intact for quite some time is you must stop when there is someone in the crosswalk, period. You can be the only car for miles, and you aren't legally allowed to move into the crosswalk until the pedestrian has fully crossed, even if they're crossing your lane first. You've got to stay until they're out.

How many people do that? I do it, and most people will get all ticked off if they're behind me because they think that since they've crossed your lane, it's ok to go. WRONG. Heck with the people behind me, they have a problem with it i'll just show them my Sheriff's Office ID.

I've theorized that to be an excellent driver, you must have a "sixth sense" when it comes to the road. It's the ability to predict what another driver is going to do, using clues such as speed, control, weather, and road conditions (regarding you or the other driver). There are times when I can tell someone intends to cut me off, or when someone is going to stop suddenly. It's not a skill so much as it is an awareness of the environment. This is why distractions are a big danger for drivers, because it takes your mind and eyes away from the world around you.

Driving a vehicle comes with tremendous responsibility. I wish that more people understood that. Cars and roadways do not, should not, have priority over everything else, but too many drivers think they do. There's a new law here trying to protect pedestrians in crosswalks, requiring drivers to yield if someone so much as sets a foot into the walkway, and not move until the pedestrian has crossed halfway. There was a massive advertising campaign to warn people about the new law, the newspapers carried stories, the newscasts ran features, radio DJs made announcements, and the law has been in existence for several months.

In my experience since that law's enactment, driving every day, I haven't seen anybody observe that law. As if to drive home the point of people thinking cars are more important than people, someone honked their horn at me when I waited for a pedestrian.

We shouldn't be afraid of driving, but we should be well-educated and mindful of how our actions can affect others. It's like fish-keeping; we can't properly take care of fish if we don't understand what we're doing, right? Throwing a goldfish into a 1G bowl is like thinking a pedestrian must yield to a car.

I've been in two accidents. One, my fualt, the other, not my fualt. First one I ran into a poll in a parking lot because 1) i was tired and my eyes weren't functioning, thus 2) i didn't see the poll in the middle of the parking space I was pulling into, and 3) I went to pick something out of the passenger seat or floor and wasn't paying attention. I wasn't wearing a seatbelt (I was in a church parking lot and was going from the front door to a parking spot, didn't figure I do anything) so my head caused the glass to have a different shape

Second one, a elderly lady was facing the evening sun, and was turning into a park. With the sun in her eyes she couldn't see my car thus turned into the park while I was going by. Luckily I saw her starting to turn and I swerved to go into a area of grass and all that happened was she t-boned my rear driver wheel. Bent the frame, broke back bumper, nothing TOO bad. Its good I have quick reflexes because otherwise, if I wouldn't have swerved, I would have t-boned her in her front passenger door at ~40 MPH, and she hade an elderly friend with her in the passenger seat so she may have been seriously injured.

With all the tailgaters, super aggressive drivers, road rage, and all the distractions, driving can be very hazardous. But accidents can happen with anything anywhere. I personally hate driving. If at all possible, I avoid it.

Cars/trucks/motorized vehicles are a fact of life. Like you said, no way to avoid it. I've been in 1 accident, and it wasn't really my fault. I was driving with my friend to his house, and nailed a deer smack dab in the middle of my front end. Both airbags deployed, smaking my friend in the eyeball and knocking both of us out. When i came to, my car was still in 5th gear bucking along straight at a guardrail. As i was trying to figure out what the heck was going on my friend woke up all disoriented not being able to see and half his face all bloody. The horn was blaring, the cabin filled with smoke/talc from the airbags. Neither of us knew what was going on, so we bailed as fast as we could and ran from the car. My friend still couldn't see nor feel his face, but we finally figured out what was going on and ended up hitching a ride to the nearest phone. 7,000 dollars plus was the damage done. Needed a hood, front clip, power steering, both airbags, a windshield (airbag cracked it in two places) sensors, lights, grille, fenders, etc etc. Got the cost down to 4,300+ after getting a salvage unit so the insurance company wouldn't total it. My friend went to the hospital with damage to his eye. He will never see the same out of it again, the airbag basically shattered all the tendons that hold it correctly.

I like driving and regularly go drive just to drive

As said before, it's the other people on the road you have to be worried about. With all the cell phones and makeup putting on and shaving and newspaper reading and stock trading and 4 obnoxious kids in the back etc etc people don't pay much attention. They drift, speed, whip through signs/lights, and just plain drive like idiots. Comes with the territory.

Just keep it between the lines at proper speed and obey all traffic devices and you should be just fine.

Has anyone else ever worried about this? How do you deal with it?

I drive and I can sometimes worry about the other people on the road with me, I have no control over the way they drive other than me driving defensively and being prepared (as much as you can) for someone to be an idiot on the road with you That's all you CAN do really.

I also got an email from a friend saying that a colleague of hers was killed over the weekend In melbourne, driving home to be with his family after a trip overseas

I just don't know how I'd deal with that I worry constantly that there will be a problem with cars involving my family and friends, but worrying doesn't seem to help

I drive, but i try not to. I'm not as bright and sparky as i should be and i'd hate to cause an accident because I was not alert enough.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett