On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 02:30:04PM -0700, Walter Bright wrote: > On 4/18/2013 11:44 AM, H. S. Teoh wrote: > >Since then, I no longer assume that red lights, pedestrian walk > >signs, or crosswalk flashing lights mean anything to drivers. You > >might pay for that assumption with your life. *shudder* > > The phrase is you don't want to be right - dead right.
Right, I'd rather be alive and wrong than *dead* right. > The bikers and pedestrians that resolutely expect me to dodge them > amaze me. They never even look. There'll be 4 abreast walking, > sticking out into the lane. To pass them, the driver is forced into > the left lane. Of course they never look to see if the drivers > actually will. I grew up in a country where drivers will deliberately step on the gas if you dare jay-walk in front of them. On this continent, however, it seems the opposite prevails -- drivers are expected to go out of their way to be nice to you. Rumor has it that the rate of pedestrian-related accidents for BC residents are highest *outside* the province. Apparently people here come to take driver niceness for granted, and then they go out into the *ahem* real world and they get run over. *shrug* > I drove around a blind corner once (on a fairly major road) and > there's a guy on a bike in the middle, stopped, towing his baby behind > the bike. I couldn't believe it! I stopped and yelled at him I was so > upset - he was shocked that there was anything stupid about what he > was doing. > > Another time, a woman is pushing her baby carriage down the center of > the lane. She didn't even look back as I drove up behind her. I > stopped and yelled at her. She said "well, if my number is up, my > number is up." > > Unbelievable. > > My dad used to irritate the heck out of me by driving down > residential streets at about 10 mph. I understand now why he did > that. Yeah, up here in the Great White North we also have our fair share of people who do stupid things on the road... like jay-walk across a busy street at night wearing dark clothes, or ride a bike down an unlit street at night *without* any blinkers or lights of any sort (or helmet, for that matter). Worst are those who would walk in front of a moving car and then yell at the driver for not stopping for them (this actually happened to my then-fiancée once -- I was in the car, and quite speechless at the pedestrian's audacity). Of course, back in Asia where traffic rules are only recommendations, a different kind of stupidity prevails... like zigzagging a moped through moving traffic with a baby in one hand and bulging bags of groceries in the other (and another child clinging to the back without a helmet). Well, it looks like my random signature Perl script has picked out an appropriate quote for the occasion. ;-) T -- Do not reason with the unreasonable; you lose by definition.
