Once I was on my bike and someone stopped to let me across the street, holding up a ton of traffic. In order to not be rude and force everyone to stop for me I rode across as fast as I could and then got hit by a car coming the other way.
Don’t be polite. Be predictable.
I bitch about this constantly. My partner and I love to walk around town, and people will stop let us cross at weird points in the street. My partner is always happy about this and I correct them every time that “I’d prefer if they were predictable. What if someone behind them got annoyed and didn’t see us and decided to go around and hit us?”
For sure, I think drivers often make calculations like they’re being nice, but the risk to a walker is way higher than a driver and so they shouldn’t be surprised when the walker doesn’t take the wave. I slow down and meander as a pedestrian when there’s a busy 4 way and then jog across, if people stop early “just in case” I feel put at risk for niceties.
“Thanks for not causing me bodily harm with your machine”
Had a guy pulling out of a parking lot while I was walking on the sidewalk, with him waiting on the sidewalk to pull into traffic. He actually bothered to back up a bit so I didn’t have to walk in front or behind him. It wasn’t necessary but a cool gesture. We could all do a little more of that in the world.
I had the same experience earlier this week, except they didn’t back up and instead started driving, forcing me to jump back to avoid being run over
Driving a car is a sin, and the gods will punish all of us for your hubris. They’ll send droughts, famines, floods, fires, and hurricanes to smite us all because you drove a car.
