Why bicycles and pedestrians do not care if the light is green or not? (New York: how much, taxi driver)
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As someone who both drives regularly and also bikes for leisure/exercise I can say that drivers really get the S***-end of the stick and its totally unfair.
While I like bicycles and absolutely think they are a great form of transportation, I think that driving is RIGHT and not a privilege. The cities policies are slanted wayyy to much in favor of cyclists and pedestrians. There a studies that actually show that bike lanes make conditions less safe for cyclists, yet the city has been very haphazard with throwing them in everywhere.
Case in point: Flushing Ave, running from Myrtle to the BQE....major artery for delivery trucks and people trying to get to Manhattan and Queens from Brooklyn. Traffic is very HEAVY. For some reason, this strip of Flushing Ave has been designated as shared car/bike lane by the city. So now, while you sit in already terrible traffic and try to avoid turning Hasidic school buses, you also have to worry about not hitting cyclists who act like the avenue is primarily built for them. Add into the mix pedestrians j-walking left and right and this becomes a nightmare.
Robert Moses' plans for cross-Brooklyn expressways were shut down way back when, and the city's road maintenance is just laughable. Now, when drivers have no other choice than take streets to their destinations, they're pummeled by fixed-gear bikes and a seemingly endless flow of blind pedestrians. This is totally unfair for someone like me who HAS to use a car for work and cannot use public transit. Instead of realizing how ineffective bike lanes have been and finding a better way to control cyclists, the city actually decides we need more bikes and puts those awful citibike racks everywhere, adding another scary factor to all this: inexperienced bikers on citi bikes riding down major thoroughfares.
//end rant
Driving in NYC is a hassle. I'm tired of the pedestrians and bicycles that always get on your way even when the light is green? Why do they jump in front of you? Is it because they are tired of their lives and want you to hit them? The other day I was driving at 30 mph which is the speed limit in NYC. Then I saw some teenagers that crossed in front of me like they don't care about anything. I had to reduce abruptly. If not I would have hit them. Why are people like this? They can just let a car passed as the car goes fast than them. Then they will blame it on the vehicles.. SMH like I always hear on the TV. A car struck a pedestrian. When in reality it was his/her fault.
Inputs please....
The people walking in front & not caring is a ghetto people thing. It's been especially epidemic in the Bronx for many many years now
That's just being dumb and inconsiderate period, but you know people
like that exist, so you have to always watch for them like babies.
Their attitude must be "people come before cars, so whatever" until
they finally get hit, then they sue you and it's your problem and theirs
because of their injury.
Cell phones can be the cause of a lot of bad behavior, both by pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers alike.
I'm glad I don't drive in the city but I do walk everywhere and walking down the sidewalk during rush hour can be a chaotic exercise in sanity on overcrowded sidewalks. It seems 1/2 of my fellow pedestrians are glued to the phones texting away not aware of their surroundings. Other pedestrians need to dodge them those who text and walk and it can sometimes feel like you're playing football making evasive movements to avoid running into them. There's sensory deprivation walkers wear headphones and sunglasses and expect everyone to move out of their way, pedestrians who walk "blindly into traffic crossing the street against the light, runners training for a marathon (and not using logic) sprinting down crowded sidewalks and don't want to stop at the lights... or stop for any reason really. Have seen a lot of bad pedestrian behavior on the sidewalks and having overcrowded sidewalks in core Manhattan neighborhoods doesn't help the situation. Many people take to walking in the bike lane during rush hour which creates an added obstacle for bikers.
But the other part of the equation is on the streets. There's drivers who are impatient and try to hurry everyone up in the crosswalk to make a turn (combine impatient drivers and an ped trying to make the walk signal which equals disaster), drivers texting away who don't know the light has just turned red or are lost and are gazing up at the street signs/ addresses instead of paying attention to what's in front of them. Worse and the most dangerous to everyone are drivers who suffer from road rage; not good in crowded dense urban areas.
Some bicyclists have what I've dubbed "bike rage"; flying through a busy intersection without braking (many bike messengers do this) and shouting at everyone who dares to get in their path. Then there's Citibikers, many who are inexperienced urban bike riders (I've seen many load down the front basket with shopping bags or are chatting away on their cell while flying down the bike lane), etc... For some reason a lot of bikers have the mindset normal traffic laws don't apply to them.
Anyone can be inconsiderate and dangerous whether it's behind the wheel of a car, on bike or on foot. It's usually the worst during rush hour in and around Midtown.
OP's feeling of entitlement is an American cultural thing. Try crossing a street in Toronto and see the respect accorded the pedestrian by drivers.
I'm often amused by the spectacle in midtown of ten or twenty individual motorists tying up an intersection while hundreds of pedestrians stand in a crowd to let them pass.
OP's feeling of entitlement is an American cultural thing. Try crossing a street in Toronto and see the respect accorded the pedestrian by drivers.
I'm often amused by the spectacle in midtown of ten or twenty individual motorists tying up an intersection while hundreds of pedestrians stand in a crowd to let them pass.
It's not entitled to take the position that pedestrians should observe traffic signals, the same way drivers should also observe theirs.
what pisses me off the most is when pedestrians walk even slower when they see a car coming even though it's a green light for the car!!!!!!!
Yeah smh! Cops have to start giving tickets to pedestrians who jay walk and crosses the street when the traffic light is green for the cars.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Henna
I completely agree. The behavior of the pedestrians makes it very dangerous to drive. Every time I am approaching an intersection where there are people around, someone is stepping out in front of my car when I have the green. What this encourages me to do is to speed up a little when approaching an intersection, in order to deter even more pedestrians from going against the light (although I really try not to speed up). It seems if the pedestrians sense even a tiny bit of hesitation in the driver, or that the driver will "let them get away with it" as expressed earlier in the thread, then they get even more bold (and stupid).
I am all for a jaywalking ticket blitz in this city in order to make people wake up and pay attention. And most of the time I am a pedestrian and not a driver!
Yeah It's crazy smh! Today I was driving in Manhattan. I was turning right so for the cars we had the green light and for the pedestrians they had the walk sign. Many people are crossing the streets so thereby I waited and waited. So I got the light on red for 3 times now. This time when the light changes green again I was making my way slowly towards the right. These pedestrians got mad because I kept going and they were saying that it was walk for them. However how am I supposed to turn if I keep giving all pedestrians a break to pass? It is a hassle... Also what I found is that people who are not native New Yorkers ( are not from NYC) are the ones that really get pissed off when the cars just keep making their way slowly when turning.
Yeah smh! Cops have to start giving tickets to pedestrians who jay walk and crosses the street when the traffic light is green for the cars.
Yeah It's crazy smh! Today I was driving in Manhattan. I was turning right so for the cars we had the green light and for the pedestrians they had the walk sign. Many people are crossing the streets so thereby I waited and waited. So I got the light on red for 3 times now. This time when the light changes green again I was making my way slowly towards the right. These pedestrians got mad because I kept going and they were saying that it was walk for them. However how am I supposed to turn if I keep giving all pedestrians a break to pass? It is a hassle... Also what I found is that people who are not native New Yorkers ( are not from NYC) are the ones that really get pissed off when the cars just keep making their way slowly when turning.
I was actually talking about me driving straight on a green and the pedestrians crossing directly in front of me on a red walk light.
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