Just about got ran over today

MACenstein'sMonster · May 25th, 2010, 03:46 AM

During my morning run I stopped at a street corner. I looked both ways like my mom taught me and seen an oncoming truck. Made eye contact with the driver who was slowing to turn in front of me. Contact made. Was about to step forward when I realized the dude wasn't going to stop. Then I continued to make eye contact while forming with my facial muscles a look of disgust. Dude couldn't stop down but he did manage to find time to gesture at me like I had just stomped on his prize winning roses or let the air out of his girlfriend. Then I looked down at the street. There were clearly marked crosswalk lines. To my left there was a big black and white crosswalk sign. The dude passed by that sign before passing by me. Hmmm, maybe he gesturing to me how embarrassed and sorry he was.

Is this a big deal? Not really. Getting ran over would've been bigger. So this thread is partially a salute to not being ran over. If I had been ran over it might have been months, maybe years or maybe never before you'd get to hear about me being ran over. This is better. Much better.

The other part of this thread is dedicated to people who drive vehicles and act like idiots. I'm losing my fondness for them. In the past couple of years I've had a lot of unprovoked incidents with these folk while I've been on foot and on my bike. Like I've just been running along the road or on a trail near the road and people in vehicles have passed by while yelling insults at me. Why? Normally I wouldn't stand out in a crowd but I put running shoes and shorts on and suddenly I'm George W. Bush in Iraq at a press conference. Brutal. I'm biking, following the rules of the road, and yet I've had at least 3 incidents of people intentionally swerving their vehicle towards me. I assume it was done to psych me out. Or maybe they don't realize that it's not as funny when you're viewing it from my vantage point. I even had a truck full of geniuses (<-- that's 100% sarcasm) turn around and follow me up a hill while hurling insult after insult at me. I moved to the other side of the road breaking the rules because something made me think these guys could be "crazy". It was almost midnight on a Friday night and I'm guessing none of them had a date so this was their B plan for a good time. Then there was today's incident.

Strange, I don't think I strike an imposing figure unless you're one of them little guys from Lord of the Rings. I don't even think those guys would be intimidated by me. Yet, nobody ever seems to do these kinds of things to me unless they are behind the wheel of a motorized confidence builder. Nobody has ever run up beside me while I've been running and then call me a name. Nobody has tried to play chicken with me while riding their BMX. Well, not intentionally. I'm trying to make the connection between these incidents and myself. Why are these things happening so often? I'm getting to the point where one of these days I'm hoping one of these brave souls does something unique and tries messing with me and then unwittingly stops and parks a couple blocks away. Then I might get a chance to make that connection. Or maybe I need to live in Toronto or Vancouver for awhile. Then I could move back and appreciate how wonderful the people in Saskadoom really are.

Dr.G. · May 25th, 2010, 05:54 AM

We are all just glad you are safe, MM. Paix, mon ami.

chas_m · May 25th, 2010, 06:49 AM

I'm hardly an expert on Canada, but I'd find it hard to believe something like the incidents you describe would happen with any regularity in Vancouver or Victoria. Maybe the people in Saskatoon are just awful idiots.

Lichen Software · May 25th, 2010, 07:03 AM

It sounds like a city with big time "Car Culture". My daughter is in Victoria and as Chas said, I do not see it happening there. On foot or bike is the place to be.

Barrie is another matter. They are starting to realize that they have to do something. But, there was for a while, if you wanted to run or walk from the east side to the west side, there was only one way to go through under highway 400, especially in winter. there was a second way over a bridge, but the walkway was not plowed in winter so you would be on a snow bank about highway 400 - no nice. Of course that one way was through the part of town with all of the scrap yards so you could run under the bridge being chased by a junk yard dog.

Bike lanes are a major fight. They have built hundreds of miles of new road, the opportune time to put in bike lanes. I think that they have one on my side of town. Yet this is a minimum wage town where people working in the service sector could really use a safe cheap way to go to work.

There are a lot of commuters, all in a hurry and some quite aggressive. I had one incident when I had my Suzuki Swift (sadly, now cubed). I was at a stop light turning right, but I could not see oncoming traffic because of a high van beside me. The guy behind started honking and the at the next stop light pulled up beside and started swearing. I had a few choice words.

Anyway, glad you were not clipped.

Dammacx · May 25th, 2010, 09:41 AM

Ha, try crossing a street in downtown Toronto. I almost got run over while standing on a sidewalk the other day. I am usually really careful these days when it comes to cars. I use the "don't trust anyone" method of crossing the street. But hell I stopped to take a picture with my camera phone and and someone backed into my leg. Now I take a little fault in that I am usually more observant about things and I didn't even notice that anyone was in the car when I had walked out of the building but I was standing on the sidewalk and he came at me from the building side where he was parked. I might have been in his blind spot but seriously dude if you have to cross through a sidewalk to get onto a street from where you are parked take a good look. If I had been a old lady I might have been dead. Good thing Im like 6'2" and on the beefy side, i hurt myself more by twisting to see what bumped into me more then the car hurt but like I said if I had been a little old lady or a kid, or normal size I might of had a broken leg.

But seriously I watch people in the city driving and both drivers and pedestrians are total idiots these days. Everyone is always in such a rush. My new quote is that people driving in Toronto is like watching really dumb monkeys trying to stick square pegs into round holes.

Opps, Google Map codes didn't work the first time.

19 Duncan Street Toronto - Google Maps <<< I was about where the guy in the redshirt is but I was standing still and closer to the curb.

johnb1 · May 26th, 2010, 08:58 AM

glad to hear that you are okay M.M
and no, you're not alone-not by a long shot
here in Deadmonton, we get the same thing
Cars 1st, then buses, then maybe bikes and people.
some people are nice and will let me finish crossing at the crosswalk
others, specially turning the corner, don't wanna wait and go right through
you don't have a car? well, there must be something wrong with you.....
I guess I like being a 2nd class citizen....
"clowns to the left to me, jokers to the right....
JB

MLeh · May 26th, 2010, 09:31 AM

I live in a small town and we have a small weekly community newspaper.

A couple of weeks ago someone wrote a letter to the editor chastising an elderly woman with a cane for 'crossing the highway slowly', and backing up traffic.

The response the following week was a slew of letters telling the guy to 'chill', 'slow down' and 'did he expect an elderly woman with a cane to RUN across the highway'?

I love where I live.

Dammacx · May 26th, 2010, 09:43 AM

Yeah it is as simple as that. If people would just "Chill" a lot of the traffic problems would resolve themselves. I love it when the traffic slows down just a little bit and the all of a sudden people start trying to change into the other lane because they think it will go faster which just causes even more slowdown. If they would just "Chill" for a second their lane starts moving.

MLeh · May 26th, 2010, 10:07 AM

I chalk it up to the 'me first' attitude so many people have. People who cut in front of me think they have a 'right' to be in front - that they're more important than however it is they're cutting off.

If someone cuts me off, my attitude is "I don't let you in in front of me because you're better than me, or because you 'made' me. I let you in* because I'm a nice person."

*let you in = resisted the urge to slam my vehicle into the side of your vehicle rendering you unconscious or possibly dead

dona83 · May 26th, 2010, 12:01 PM

If I see a car going through a right turn without looking like I did yesterday and is going slow enough that I'll probably not get hurt, I'd probably just go on forward and get hit and then sue the poor bastard, well at least the insurance company. I could use a bit of extra money.

Oh yea, too bad she stopped inches from me.