Have any of you have close calls with pedestrians

Safety
41

I as a pedestrian have had close calls, most memorable walk light goes on, no traffic, start to walk and lady on a cellphone in a minivan does not even slow down at the red light and turns right, I jumped back out of her way to avoid getting killed, and wanted to do a front kick to her rear fender as she passed by, sure I’d put a dent in the car, but never even saw a brake light or her slow down.

On the other note I always check to the right for bicycles and pedestrians , lucky for a guy going 30mph on a motorized bicycle, I saw him, a half a block back while at a red light, and I would have just begun a turn and gotten creamed by him, had I not waited for him to blow on through the red light.

42

As I have mentioned previously, in a different thread, my daily power-walks are usually done in Delaware & Raritan Canal State Park, which is ~ 1/2 mile from my house. The rules of the trail are that cyclists are supposed to yield to pedestrians, but by 2017 it appears that at least 80% of the bikers are unaware of this rule, or they choose to ignore it.

The trail is approximately 7 feet wide, and it can comfortably accommodate both pedestrians and cyclists–IF the cyclists make pedestrians aware that they are approaching from the rear. A few bikers still warn of their approach, but unfortunately they are very few in number. More often than not, I find myself being passed–without warning–by a speeding cyclist who chooses to give me only a foot or two of distance.

The absolute worst are the ones who ride in groups. One would think that it might be possible for them to fall into a single-file line for the few seconds that it would take for them to pass pedestrians, but all too many of them choose to ride two abreast, leaving only the smallest imaginable space for those on foot.

One of these days, a startled senior citizen (me) is going to be so bothered by one of these lycra-clad hooligans that he will “accidentally” stumble in just the right way to pitch a biker–and his bike into the canal.
:smirk_cat:

43

A couple weeks ago three cars were stopped at a crosswalk letting a girl cross the street. Another car passed the stopped cars on the right and hit her. Due to her permanent injuries the guy has now been charged with one felony and four misdemeanors. He’s in a lot of trouble. You never know though if a string of cars are stopped for someone making a left turn or not but this guy will be digging out for years from an instant of recklessness.

A life long friend was hit on his bike when he was about in 8th grade. Smashed his hip and leg. Spent several years off and on in a cast, plus the leg never grew at the same rate as the other one so he has been limited all his life. Now he’s having trouble with his hip again but the docs don’t think they can do another replacement. Now that he’s approaching 70 I suspect he won’t be mobile too many more years. Too bad and that $20K settlement in the 60’s doesn’t go very far now. So whoever was right or wrong, a little caution is in order.

1 Like
44

Oh do I have accounts of cases where things go wrong:

  • I have seen so many idiots on bicycles do things that seem like total idiocy:

    • Running a stop sign from being hidden behind a stopped truck
    • Riding across crosswalks without stopping for traffic
    • Riding the wrong way on a one-way street right into a truck turning from a side street.
    • No lights at night
    • Running traffic signals
    • Pretending to be pedestrians
    • Passing a car turning right on its right side. One tried and failed to pass a turning school bus on the right. He was killed when he was thrown off the bike into a stream 6 feet down.

  • One time on a 4-lane street I passed on the right a line of 4 semis stopped to make a left turn. I saw no reason to suspect anything wrong because the light was green and they were signaling left turns. There was no way I could see the school bus that was stopped in the right lane going the other way. It’s red lights were flashing and the stop sign arm was out.

  • The only two vehicle accidents I was ever were both caused by the other driver being so absorbed on a cell phone that they were not paying attention to the road.

    • One passed me in the right on the shoulder while I was signaling a right turn just as I started the turn. Usually cars that slow down there make left turns. The other driver didn’t notice the difference.
    • The other turned left from the middle lane of a three-lane one-way street tight in front of me.I reacted as soon as I saw it, but I was so close that I ht the car before my foot hit the brake.

  • The only pedestrian I had trouble with was one jogging down the middle of the road instead of using the sidewalk.

Our state has a law that a pedestrian must stop and make sure that no car is close enough to be an immediate hazard before entering the crosswalk. It also requires pedestrians walking along the road (instead of across it) to leave the road if blocking the progress of a car.

Maybe those rogue pedestrians should be called pestrians.

45

How does one “pretend to be a pedestrian”? There are many situations where the law requires cyclists to walk their bikes. Clearly you’ve never been a cyclist and don’t know the rules of the road.

Are there inconsiderate cyclists who create dangerous situations? Absolutely.
But you sound like you clearly have a “thing” against cyclists… and that too is dangerous. Try consideration for a change.

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46

Thank you for asking the question that I was pondering.
:thinking:

47

My original post explained two safe alternatives.

48

I guess I’m not quite following. Except for rare occasions, crosswalks are at the corners, not in the middle of the street. I can’t remember anytime from the 50’s forward that crosswalks weren’t at all intersections. I think they are making more of an effort to paint them now than before but they have always been used. The difference is that cars usually didn’t stop for you and you had to watch for cars.

49

In some areas, many drivers still don’t stop for pedestrians!
I used to have to hand-deliver the Court Complaints that I had written, and while our office was only ~3 blocks from the courthouse, it sometimes took me a ridiculously long amount of time to get to the courthouse because so many cars would zoom past me as I stood in the crosswalk.

Some days, it was downright hazardous to cross the street in that area.
:worried:

50

A cyclist pretends to be a pedestrian when he rides his bike following the pedestrians laws instead of the vehicle laws bicycles are required to obey. He rides on sidewalks, uses crosswalks as though he were a pedestrian, and obeys the pedestrian signals instead of the vehicle signals. But he is going too fast for the pedestrian laws to work properly.

Walking the bike is the correct way to become a pedestrian.

I used to be a cyclist for transportation reasons. I always obeyed the traffic laws, I quit cycling because I could not buy a house within 2 miles of my job and bicycle theft became rampant.

I go out of my way to assist a cyclist who is obeying the law. The problem is that they are very rare. Too many cyclists ride like they expect everyone else to have to yield to them (more of pretending to be a pedestrian). Too often the cyclist’s goal seems to be to never have to stop or climb a hill.

You will love this sign of cyclist strangeness. The city built a bicycle overpass over a heavily used industrial street. But I see too many cyclists take the exit ramp from the bikeway to the industrial street, worm their way through the traffic on that street, and re-enter the bikeway via the entrance ramp on the other side. They don’t want to climb the gentle hill to cross the bridge.

51

Check what the law really is. In most states, the pedestrian has the duty to stop and wait until all cars too close to be able to stop safely have passed. Only a few states have the wacky idea that cars can instantly stop for pedestrians.

52

In my state, cars are required to stop for a pedestrian who has entered the crosswalk.
Because I don’t have a death wish, I won’t walk in front of cars that have not given a good indication that they are slowing down, and because I am realistic, I know that cars cannot stop instantly.

However, if I have already made it half-way across the street–in a crosswalk–do you really think that it is reasonable for drivers in the lane that I have not yet crossed to zoom past me? I lost count of how many times I had to stand for an extended period of time in the middle of a fairly busy main street while cars continued to pass me with no regard for my presence in the middle of the street.
:frowning_face:

53

Did you watch the news report a couple weeks ago about the cross-walks in Boston? They were talking about the buttons you press so you can get the Walk signal. Turns out a good number of them don’t work - ON PURPOSE. They said they just can’t have pedestrians stopping traffic all the time to cross the street.

54

You have described my state’s laws. The cyclist can become a pedestrian by dismounting and walking the bicycle. It’s really quite simple.

55

LOL, yup, that sounds like Boston alright!

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56

VDCdriver
In my state, cars are required to stop for a pedestrian who has entered the crosswalk.
Because I don’t have a death wish, I won’t walk in front of cars that have not given a good indication that they are slowing down, and because I am realistic, I know that cars cannot stop instantly.

Cars cannot stop instantly. It takes almost one second for the driver to perceive a hazard and begin to take avoiding action. Then it takes more time for the avoiding action to take place.

The best law (and the one in my state) is that the pedestrian has the duty to make sure the way is clear from immediate hazard before entering the crosswalk, and the driver has the duty to stop for pedestrians once they have legally entered the crosswalk.

VDCdriver
However, if I have already made it half-way across the street–in a crosswalk–do you really think that it is reasonable for drivers in the lane that I have not yet crossed to zoom past me?

No. Those drivers must also stop when you are in the lane next to theirs and are approaching their lane.

MikeInNH
Did you watch the news report a couple weeks ago about the cross-walks in Boston? They were talking about the buttons you press so you can get the Walk signal. Turns out a good number of them don’t work - ON PURPOSE. They said they just can’t have pedestrians stopping traffic all the time to cross the street.

It is more likely the reporter stupidly expects the button to instantly stop traffic for the pedestrian as soon as it is pressed. But that is not how a pedestrian button works.

What the pedestrian button really does is place a call to the traffic signal controller saying that a pedestrian wants to cross the street. This is the same as pushing the button on an elevator to place a call for the elevator;. But, just as placing the call for the elevator does not bring the elevator immediately, pressing the pedestrian button does not immediately bring a walk signal. In both cases, you have to wait until the proper times for these events to happen.

In the case of the traffic signal, it has a cycle it goes through, presenting the phases (green lights) in a predetermined order. The pedestrian indication is usually tied to a green light phase, so it must wait until that green light appears. What the pedestrian button really does is make sure that enough time is given to that green light for a safe crossing. It shows the walk man and the flashing don’t walk hand to indicate that those periods are guaranteed.

Some signals have an all-walk phase. In this case, the pedestrian lights have their own phase, and their own point in the cycle All of the vehicle lights go red, and all of the walk lights come on at the same time. But this still has to wait until the point in the cycle where the all-walk phase was programmed.

57

What is so hard to understand? Non stoplight controlled intersection @Troubleshooter

Bicycles are allowed to ride on sidewalks in non business areas in our city.

So sure I am one of those nasty bikers that occasionally goes to the sidewalk, giving pedestrians the right of way of course, when a wide road for 2 way traffic, turns into a left turn, straight and right turn lane, and I just do not want to squeeze into a narrow space where my pedal might hit the curb, that tight it is.

Sure I bend the rules sometimes, now tell me you in your life have never even gone 1 mph over the speed limit,

PS, it is the conservatives not liberals looking at establishing tollways in Wisconsin, and loved IL plan, raising tolls is part of congestion reduction, keep the riff raf off the tollways!

58

Please, let’s refrain from making this another political debate.

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59

I hear they do this in lots of places. I don’t know if it’s true, but I hear they sometimes deliberately disable the “open door” and “close door” buttons on an elevator too for the same reason, that they don’t want people overriding the elevator’s programming.

Actually, this kind of thing makes sense if they’re using advanced tools to adjust the timing of the traffic lights (or elevators in busy buildings) to maximize traffic flow during rush hour.

Some municipalities just use basic programming for their traffic lights, and some municipalities use sophisticated programming that is adjusted based on traffic studies, but some of the more heavily-populated and enlightened municipalities have invested in sophisticated systems that can adjust themselves or be adjusted by a technician to maximize traffic flow when particular areas are congested. In areas where the programming is sophisticated and foot traffic is an independent variable that affects the timing of the lights, it makes sense to disable those buttons part of the time or all of the time, because people can be amazingly irrational, and if you take away the buttons, people might be more likely to lose patience and walk into traffic rather than keep pounding on that button.

60

NO…The Boston police actually admitted it.