drivers in Pittsburgh (Greensburg, Washington, Columbia: versus, statistics, license plate)

[greg42]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

Do Pittsburghers not realize motorists are supposed to yield to THEM as they enter/approach crosswalks? I don't get it?!

I am starting to wonder, although then again when I cross streets downtown during the workday I don't see people doing that, at least not when the light first changes. The light changes, you walk, regardless of whether a car is waiting to turn right or not. So I'm not sure why that doesn't seem to apply at 5:10pm on the North Side.

[fleetiebelle]

I saw a classic example of Pittsburgh merging on my way to work this morning. Part of the right lane of the inbound Liberty Bridge was closed for maintenance. The merge point was about halfway down the bridge. Rather than drive all the way down the lane to where the arrow was, more than one person stopped and blocked the right lane right at the entrance to the bridge, making stupid backups in the remnants of rush hour traffic. There was about 100 feet of empty lane in front of them that could have been filled with cars zippering in at the merge point, but noooo.

[OniNoKen]

I learned to drive somewhere else, and understand merging. Last year, McKnight had a bridge that was down to one lane each direction, and a merge point, with signs and everything. I would regularly get honked at, flipped off, screamed at, and I swear one guy may have thrown his poo at me when I would proceed in the closed lane to the merge point. It was like they thought I was cheating, or something.

[minthotchocolate]

So, last night I had quite an experience on the very same intersection that inspired me to start this thread. This is a three-way intersection of Shady Ave and Alder St, with the Calvary Episcopal Church on Shady, school for deaf children on the other side, and kids activity center on the third part of the intersection. There is a clearly marked zebra, with additional fluorescent yellow school zone sign, but no traffic light. There is quite a bit of foot traffic there, because some people park at the church and go to school, or park on the street and go to church, there is also a bus stop right on the corner of Alder and Shady that people use a lot. Anyway, just describing the intersection, where No Car Ever Stops unless you utilize The Crossing Scowl.

Last night me and my husband were crossing this intersection. There was an SUV coming towards us, but it was still far, so we started walking. When we were in the middle of the intersection, the car was on the other side of it, slowing down for a second, as if deciding whether to cut in front of us, or let us go first. Then it sped up, trying to cut in front. By that time we were at about 3/4 into the crosswalk, so the dude in his SUV had to stop abruptly right in front of us. My husband gave him the "rifle and bible" look from the Q-tip comment and then the hell broke lose. The guy got out of his car and started jumping on to us yelling that we cannot do this. My husband, in turn, lost his head a bit and yelled him to read the rules of the road. The dude was really aggressive and chased us as we tried to walk away. My husband took out his phone and started taking pictures of the car licence plate. The dude got even angrier... In the end no one got hurt, but it did stop the traffic for good 5 minutes if not more, because the guy just left his car in the middle of the intersection to harass us. We have his licence plate number, but did not call the police, maybe we should? Anyway, that was terribly unpleasant and downright scary, the guy looked completely out of control.

In any case. I've heard it is possible to request additional traffic signs for your neighborhood. Has anyone ever done it? I think that the yield sign is needed there...

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by minthotchocolate

We have his licence plate number, but did not call the police, maybe we should? Anyway, that was terribly unpleasant and downright scary, the guy looked completely out of control.

Possibly I'm biased because I take my kid to a fair number of events there, but I'd tend toward calling the cops, especially if anything threatening was uttered.

[youngabe]

Originally Posted by minthotchocolate

So, last night I had quite an experience on the very same intersection that inspired me to start this thread. This is a three-way intersection of Shady Ave and Alder St, with the Calvary Episcopal Church on Shady, school for deaf children on the other side, and kids activity center on the third part of the intersection. There is a clearly marked zebra, with additional fluorescent yellow school zone sign, but no traffic light. There is quite a bit of foot traffic there, because some people park at the church and go to school, or park on the street and go to church, there is also a bus stop right on the corner of Alder and Shady that people use a lot. Anyway, just describing the intersection, where No Car Ever Stops unless you utilize The Crossing Scowl.

Last night me and my husband were crossing this intersection. There was an SUV coming towards us, but it was still far, so we started walking. When we were in the middle of the intersection, the car was on the other side of it, slowing down for a second, as if deciding whether to cut in front of us, or let us go first. Then it sped up, trying to cut in front. By that time we were at about 3/4 into the crosswalk, so the dude in his SUV had to stop abruptly right in front of us. My husband gave him the "rifle and bible" look from the Q-tip comment and then the hell broke lose. The guy got out of his car and started jumping on to us yelling that we cannot do this. My husband, in turn, lost his head a bit and yelled him to read the rules of the road. The dude was really aggressive and chased us as we tried to walk away. My husband took out his phone and started taking pictures of the car licence plate. The dude got even angrier... In the end no one got hurt, but it did stop the traffic for good 5 minutes if not more, because the guy just left his car in the middle of the intersection to harass us. We have his licence plate number, but did not call the police, maybe we should? Anyway, that was terribly unpleasant and downright scary, the guy looked completely out of control.

In any case. I've heard it is possible to request additional traffic signs for your neighborhood. Has anyone ever done it? I think that the yield sign is needed there...

You probably would have been better off calling the cops on the spot. I don't know what could be done now that you've both left the scene and the incident is probably 12-ish hours old? For future reference, just get in the habit of calling 911 the second anything similar to this transpires. I've called the state police directly and given them license plate numbers before on 28 & 376 for certain issues. I don't know if they really do much, but I feel better that I "did something." Also, I witnessed kids throwing trash off the Greensburg Pike overpass of the Parkway East years ago and immediately reported that because myself and a few others nearly panicked and caused a pile-up. At the time, you can't be sure it's just a milk carton coming from above and not a rock. The memories of the Parkway West rock-thrower are still fresh in my mind.

I was a second away from pushing the Send button on my phone with 911 on a guy in the Giant Eagle parking lot a while back. Very similar situation. He lost his s*** over absolutely nothing. Fortunately I wasn't alone and a protective friend kind of took control. When he saw me with my phone and I said that I was calling police he quickly tucked his tail between his legs and left. Stuff like that is scary though because sadly, we never know who will resort to a weapon...

[safak]

i would immediately upload the pictures and let him know you did it. he can knock you down, take the phone, shoot you, eat the phone it won't matter. his face is on your flikr or whatever.
that will scare anyone with half a brain from doing anything illegal, knowing they are busted if they do.. and they will leave.

don't bother with the cops, because for that instance they won't actually do anything to him and it will just waste a lot of your time. if someone actually hits your or something its another story.

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by minthotchocolate

We have his license plate number, but did not call the police, maybe we should?

Of course you should report him if you have his license plate number. The way Pgh drivers ignore zebra crossings is criminal. Literally.

And be sure to do what safak says about uploading the pics. Do it now. Or I'll have your screenname replaced with sandincookedcabbage.

[greg42]

Originally Posted by minthotchocolate

So, last night I had quite an experience on the very same intersection that inspired me to start this thread. ...

I'd report it, to a non-emergency number at this point. I'm not sure if that's 311 or something else that's directly to the police. But it can't hurt. I don't know that anyone will DO anything at this point. But you do have the license number, you never know.

I think it's reasonable to call 911 during such an episode in the unfortunate event that it happens again. And yes you can suggest there be better signage, not sure of what process it will have to go through to actually get it. One thing to do possibly is to contact your member of city council for that area, assuming you live in the same area as the crossing (or even if you don't I suppose).

[greg42]

Originally Posted by OniNoKen

I learned to drive somewhere else, and understand merging. Last year, McKnight had a bridge that was down to one lane each direction, and a merge point, with signs and everything. I would regularly get honked at, flipped off, screamed at, and I swear one guy may have thrown his poo at me when I would proceed in the closed lane to the merge point. It was like they thought I was cheating, or something.

I'm still at a loss as to why people keep bringing this up as a local thing. Construction area merge, and the related conditions of accident merge and to a lesser extent heavy congestion rush hour backups that cause a similar full vs empty lane scneario, are pretty universal problems.

If you want to say that there's a bigger than usual problem with on-ramp merging around here, I might be inclined to agree. (It's a problem on both sides, both people on the ramp failing to match speed to the highway even when there's room and people on the highway insisting upon not letting a car in even when the incoming car already at speed.) But construction merging problems are everywhere.