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KC does and most of the time it is the rural folk doing it. Like I said in my previous post, most of the time when I see people driving like that in urban areas it's some 4x4 pick up or something. Again, the same people running over pedestrians in the city can't get on the interstate above 35 mph and then go straight to the far left lane. Morons.
BTW, this is not unique to KC. I have seen this type of behavior in most inland cities.
I seriously don't think it's a rural versus city thing. I've spent the majority of my life in towns smaller than 20k and even out in the country, and I will vouch that they too, are capable of driving fast and agressive on a regular basis. There's a lot of ground to cover in between those pastures.They also know how to treat pedestrians. Could be that there's a lack of driver's education in the KC area, or they're just plain bad and don't care. It's also the pickup trucks and SUV's that are usually going the fastest around here. I find that the slowest drivers in this area are also the oldest in most cases. Nothing against that, it's just an observation.
I was also taught to look both ways; I learned that last week in kindergarten...
This is the part I just do not comprehend: why such a cavalier attitude toward pedestrians?? I thought a pedestrian always had the right-of-way (unless jaywalking). Does MO/KS have a different law? I don't think so. If I am crossing from a store (Target/HyVee) to a parking lot and even if not in a designated crosswalk, I must be yielded to. Do you support just running over pedestrians not in a crosswalk? This is not a difference in "regional customs" - this is a difference in attitudes that I just do not get at all...
When I'm at a store like that, I always keep walking, and the cars always stop and wait. It's never been much of a problem.... at least around Independence.
You learned one way....always to yield to pedestrians. I learned another, to yield to pedestrians when, and only when they are at a pedestrian crossing. Otherwise that it is the pedestrians responsibility to yield, especially when they are choosing to cross in an undesignated area (jaywalkerss anyone?). Pedestrians and bicyclists have to follow traffic laws too!
When I was in London 20 yrs ago I know it was a fineable offense if a car so much as began to go the moment a pedestrian placed a foot off the curb onto the street. All I could think was: "thank goodness in KC pedestrians have responsibilities too and it is not always the driver who has to do the yielding".
I call that a difference in regional customs, not "additude". Although, one's additude may be shaped by that which they are accustom.
I also drive one of those SUV's folks like to blame all the time. Funny, I get cut off in parking lots by more JOCO plated Priuses than anything else. Another thing: if you are going to walk in traffic, get off the cell phone, stop texting, and pay attention! Same with you drivers out there! That big chrome bumper guard on the front of my Navigator isn't for show its for moving things out of the way be they people or vehicles.
Whew, this self-rightgeousness is hard work. I'm exhausted!
Last edited by lifelongMOgal; 08-30-2009 at 10:19 PM..
Places like large strip malls don't really have crosswalks. I think it just takes common courtesy by both drivers and pedestrians to make those places safe for both.
Northbound, I guess maybe because it's the big trucks that I remember? They are loud and annoying and really seem out of place and when the drive aggressively through areas like the plaza and downtown they are easy to notice and remember. It's not that it happens all the time though.
My only real problem with drivers in KC is the fact that people in KC simply can not merge onto a freeway. They think the traffic on the freeway should slow down to 45 mph and let them on. Drivers in the left lanes when people are passing them on the right and the fact that people just drive slow during rush hour even though the traffic is not heavy enough to warrant having to slow down. Also, don't slow down on the interstate at all. Wait till you have exited the interstate and use the exit ramp to decrease your speed.
I'm an aggressive driver though. I honk at people in Chicago and NYC and pass people in LA, Atlanta and Houston. I should fit right in up in DC.
Aggressive meaning efficient, not mean. Use your signal, use dual turn lanes correctly, use decel and accel lanes rather than main lanes to decel and accel, don't be oblivious to cars around you, be nice, get up to speed to merge, merge ever other car when needed, speed up when you can and drive the speed limit, even at 5:30 PM if there is mile of open pavement in front of you. Stuff like that. Otherwise, I will honk and appear aggressive around you.
BTW, I honk like crazy when people slow down to 30 mph to look at a police car or even a wreck. It's unnecessary and creates a hazard for everybody on the road and the people assisting with the wreck for you to slow down and look.
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I understand honking if there's a dangerous situation. Your a** sitting behind mine and nine others at a light that has just changed and being ticked that it isn't yet your TURN to pull forward until the people in front of you do doesn't constitute a dangerous situation, just an annoyance on your part...and I don't care if you're annoyed, to be honest. There are plenty of people who lay on their horns for no reason other than just to vent.
I understand honking if there's a dangerous situation. Your a** sitting behind mine and nine others at a light that has just changed and being ticked that it isn't yet your TURN to pull forward until the people in front of you do doesn't constitute a dangerous situation, just an annoyance on your part...and I don't care if you're annoyed, to be honest. There are plenty of people who lay on their horns for no reason other than just to vent.
What if the nine cars in front are not moving??? Why would I have to sit through another signal cycle because the cars at the front are not paying attention? It's not rude, it's just saying "come on, lets go, it's green".
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Still not a dangerous situation. When you honk as if there is an emergency and there's no emergency, you're just making unnecessary racket. And if the cars in front of me aren't moving, you honking in MY ear serves no purpose. I'm not going to move out of your way, I'm going to wait and take my turn like a normal person. Get over it.
So you would rather just sit there and wait for another signal cycle than do a nice little honk to let the cars in front of you know that the light is green?
Well, you have more patience than I do. I have better things to do than sit at traffic lights for unnecessarily long periods. BTW, I don't honk right away. Not in KC. I have tend to give a few seconds. But if people seem oblivious and need to be directed away from their cell phone or whatever is distracting them, I will honk.
Now I don't lay on the horn or anything.
I will lay on the horn if somebody is being a complete moron, running a red light, cutting me off, trying to make a left and creating traffic problems when a sign clearly states no left turns (mostly a midtown thing).
Slowing down to 40 mph to look at a wreck on the other side of the interstate or endangering the lives of my family by getting on the interstate at 40 mph and forcing me to do the same and deal with 70 mph semis?, you will get a major lay on the horn honk from me on those. .
Almost every time I am behind somebody else as I merge onto the freeway, they're going 45 or something, and I'm like, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? ARE YOU TRYING TO GET US KILLED?? It's an epidemic around here. I wonder what the stats are for that type of thing causing wrecks?
You learned one way....always to yield to pedestrians. I learned another, to yield to pedestrians when, and only when they are at a pedestrian crossing. Otherwise that it is the pedestrians responsibility to yield, especially when they are choosing to cross in an undesignated area (jaywalkerss anyone?). Pedestrians and bicyclists have to follow traffic laws too!
When I was in London 20 yrs ago I know it was a fineable offense if a car so much as began to go the moment a pedestrian placed a foot off the curb onto the street. All I could think was: "thank goodness in KC pedestrians have responsibilities too and it is not always the driver who has to do the yielding".
I call that a difference in regional customs, not "additude". Although, one's additude may be shaped by that which they are accustom.
I also drive one of those SUV's folks like to blame all the time. Funny, I get cut off in parking lots by more JOCO plated Priuses than anything else. Another thing: if you are going to walk in traffic, get off the cell phone, stop texting, and pay attention! Same with you drivers out there! That big chrome bumper guard on the front of my Navigator isn't for show its for moving things out of the way be they people or vehicles.
Whew, this self-rightgeousness is hard work. I'm exhausted!
The law in America is actually that pedestrians *always* have the right of way in a parking lot, driving in a parking lot should be viewed as driving on a side walk. This is how I and most people in Denver are taught, maybe it's because we have so many enormous parking lots full of people.. either way, the two things you just don't play funny with in a car are pedestrians and motorcycles, one mistake in your car and that person is dead. D E D, dead. A parking lot, a highway, or a cornfield, always yield to pedestrians, unless you think their life is a viable cost for being a pedestrian that is not purveying his responsibility..
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