Seriously, why do people walk in front of cars that are coming towards them!?! I remember when I was little, and my mom and dad taught me that I should look both ways before crossing the street, and if cars are coming, then they told me, “don’t cross, wait until it is safe, and there are no cars coming”. I know that it sounds like rocket science, but if you really look at it, it is actually basic common sense!!
Every day on the way to work, I pass by this high school in my neighborhood. Yes, it is in the ghetto, and yes, it is almost an all black high school. I am not trying to be racist or prejudiced here; I just want to know why all of those kids think that it is perfectly fine and dandy to walk out in front of cars that are hurdling towards them!? I worry about the future of our nation’s youth, especially when they make it plainly obvious that they don’t even value traffic laws or their own safety! I wonder if it is because they just don’t give a fuck, or if it is something more, such as a belief that I should be watching out for them, and therefore, it is my responsibility not to hit someone walking in the road. Hmpf! It just really pisses me off big time. Just wait until I pass by! It will only take a minute! And don’t just stand in the road or walk diagonally (taking the most amount of time possible), if you see me coming, get the fuck out of the way! I wouldn’t know from personal experience, but I would think that a 2-3 ton piece of metal hurdling towards you would hurt if it hit you! Seriously!!
AND! Just so you see I am not just picking on only those kids, now, I’m talking to you Emory Girl: when the light is green, DON’T WALK! You won’t make it! Me slamming on breaks to keep from hitting your dumb ass is not something that I should be required to do because you can’t follow instructions! In fact, that goes for all you Emory kids! Or anyone else out there that does this! It is REALLY annoying to have my shit fly in the floorboard because your dumbass didn’t bother to look and see that my light was indeed green!!!
Man, where is the world going? People must think they are all superman, and that their bodies are so strong that they can resist getting hit by a car. (Did someone say “Superbleeders?”) Well, let’s hope that I am always SUPER ALERT, so that I don’t accidentally hit and kill some moron walking in the middle of the road, right?
Hello, are you me? This happens right down the street from me (Boulevard & Ponce, surprised?) ALL the time. Hate that!
It happens all the time downtown too. I think it’s just another example of our culture’s supreme tendancy towards self-importance and lack of basic manners.
Hollis Gillespie has the perfect name for this circumstance: the asshole stroll, especially for those people who take their sweet time and are walking diagonally, oh so casually, across the street.
People do this all the time on North Ave. between Piedmont and Highland, and on Northside Dr. between 14th and 10th. WTF?
Did you have to say “it’s in the ghetto and yes, it’s almost an all black high school”?!! They are only kids. Even adults are sometimes very careless at road crossing. And shouldn’t you start to slow down when approaching a school, children, a bus stop…instead of “hurdling towards them” like some charging rhino?!! Hahaha!!! Anyway, may I ask everybody for advice, please. If I burn my boyfriend’s meals, he will refuse to make love to me. What should I do?
I have an issue more with people pulling out in front of me. On my way home from work it seems common for people to think it’s okay to pull out in front of me if they are going to be turning just a short distance off the road. If I have to slow down that means you shouldn’t have pulled out, I don’t care where the fuck you are turning.
how about the morons that ride bikes facing traffic?
i’ve almost mowed over 2 different kids with hemets at intersections in my own neighborhood with my enviro-unfriendly suv….
who would expect traffic to be on the wrong side of the road - headed in the opposite direction?
if you have them, do your kid a lesson… teach ‘em how & most importantly - where to ride…
I’m calling the fucking NAACP! *dialing*
Actually, I tend to agree with Congo. I don’t think it has to do with race moreso than your semi-targets being young and invincible. Its interesting that you felt the need to point out “the ghetto”, the fact that it was an “all black school”, and your “worry over our nations youth” but didn’t use the same sort of identifiers and language around little miss Emory girl. Hmph. Smells a little racial to me.
Maybe you are right, congo and byron, maybe I didn’t need to mention it, but I do see a disproportionate amount of this activity around that school and on my side of town. And that is why I said it that way; that isn’t racist, it is observation. And, I would hope that Ms. Emory isn’t the nation’s youth, she better be on her way, or she is wasting that trust fund!
Oh, and by the way. Virtually every traffic law in America states that no matter where you are, pedestrians ALWAYS have the right of way, even if they’re crossing in the middle of the street. If you hit someone, its automatically your fault.
Interestingly enough, James has a friend who was hit by a car and he was given a ticket, because he was crossing outside of a crosswalk. There are limits to where you can be in the road; pedestrian or not.
I enjoyed reading your post but I couldn’t help but take a deeper meaning from it. You and I have differed on several subjects that all had to do with personal responsibility. I feel it is every person’s responsibility to feed and clothe themself as well as provide for their own healthcare. I chastised people that expected others to look out for them or their welfare. I’ve made it blatantly clear that I feel all of these programs that provide care and assistance to others are effectively stealing money out of my pocket.
If you make a few changes to your argument, I think you would see that, in principle, you and I share some of the same feelings.
1. Replace the kids that don’t value their own safety and walk in front of your car with the social benefit recipients in this country.
2. Replace you looking out for these kids with the government.
3. Replace you slamming your breaks and your shit flying all over the place with the tax dollars you are forced to pay.
Make these three figurative changes, and your statement becomes, I don’t want to pay tax dollars so that my government has to take care of people that choose to not look out for themselves.
duane, I hate to say it… no, I don’t, I’m loving this, but I think you and all your commenters that claim to be so liberal may actually be a closet conservatives!
Oh sure, and if we retain the “ghetto” and “all black” equation, we can REALLY make a truthful statement of conservative thinking.
Have you ever been to Wild Safari at Six Flags? If not here is what basically happens. You drive your car through and see all the animals. The big birds, and the camels and lamas always just walk across the road when ever they feel like it. Forcing you to stop your car while you waited.
In college on this one section of town, I compared Louis Street to Wild Safari. Everyone thought I was racist because Louis street ghetto.
BTW here in Arizona, the rule is pedestrians MUST cross on a marked or unmarked cross walk. (unmarked being interesections or points where roads run perpendicular. If someone cross in the middle and you hit them, it is not your fault.
dave… you knew I was going to say this; that is a MASSIVE stretch. Just because I think that people walk in front of cars, and I tend to notice it more in the ghetto, doesn’t mean that I don’t think the government shouldn’t help people through taxes. Let’s not get crazy now.
I’ll admit it’s a stretch, but the basics are the same. The difference being that my entire thought process works this way … yours works this way when it immediately affects you and not in the bigger picture… although, you did worry about the future of our youth…
I see this all the time with the Mexicans on Buford Hwy.
When I lived in Boston, this was just expected. But at least we were quick. No asshole strolls there.
OK…So I live in one of the touristy areas of Maui, Paia, It’s a cute lil town and it has alot of great shops/restaurants on its main strip, which I have to travel down at least twice a day. They do it here too dude. The tourists think that they are impervious to metal or something I swear. And just to be nice the city of Maui has a crosswalk like every other block. Do they wait to get to the crosswalks before walking ….no , sorry about the rant but I hate it too.
But seriously, why do Americans spell Mum MOM? and I’m from Australia, what’s a traffic light??? (said with upward inflection) Thanks for a good read,
PEDESTRIANS: Avoid walking next to the kerb with your back to the traffic. If you have to step into the road, look both ways to make sure Duane is not hurdling towards you in his flash car!
DRIVERS: While driving in built up areas- ghetto or not- you should drive slowly and carefully on streets where there are likely to be pedestrians.
DUANE: Slow down! Slow down!
CONGO: It depends on how often he makes love to you. If he can only manage it once a year, I wouldn’t be bothered, love.
I honestly don’t go that fast; seriously.
Here in New England (and especially in Boston) - you always have to stop for the pedestrians, even outside of crosswalks. So pretty much anywhere, people just randomly step in the street and expect you to stop for them.
That and the cops even do stings - they have someone walk out between two parked cars and on the street and if the cars don’t stop, they get tickets.
Crazy I tell you - crazy…
(though I’ll admit I crossed streets that way when I was commuting into Boston)
Yeah, Duane is such a rascist… when I think “rascist son-of-a-bitch,” I think “Duane Moody.”
Thank you! I work across from CDC and many is the day that a careless coed almost ends up being my new hood ornament. I keep searching for a loud car horn that sounds like a shotgun blast with no luck.
Amber: LOL, I know right?!
The demographic that I see walk in front of cars the most is COLLEGE kids (black or white) and poor kids.