Ok, exactly what IS the rule/law?

[Medusa]

The Main problem I see with Store cross walks is they are so wide that the walk can be clear when you enter the crosswalk and then someone shows up when you are halfway across a 50' cross area. i agree that the approaching people should wait for you since you were already in the walk before they exit the store. I will stop if someone approaches and
they would be in front of me before i could get there. I do not stop if they approach and would be beside me if I continued. Common sense should prevail but it often does not. There are those that will rush to make you stop and then slow down just to show they are in control. These are the same people who would be a pain if they were on a public forum.

Yes, that's exactly my point, kokopup! You explained it better than I did.

[RedHedd]

Ok, you brought up another point and I'm glad you did. What about crosswalks? We don't have them here except in strip malls or downtown in cities

No crosswalks at all? I find that very strange.

In San Francisco they've started painting "limit lines" at cross-walks; whereas in the past drivers were supposed to stop behind the cross-walk lines, now we're supposed to stop behind the limit lines. I had points taking off a driving test when the examiner commented that not even a license plate screw head is to be over the limit line.

Of course, pedestrians in San Francisco seem to be oblivious as to the laws and walk wherever and whenever they please, taunting the cars to hit them.

I also don't understand the standing in the cross-walk off the curb while waiting for a light to change - it impedes drivers from making legal turns and endangers the pedestrian, but they don't seem to care.

[Cataholic]

Ok, you brought up another point and I'm glad you did. What about crosswalks? We don't have them here except in strip malls or downtown in cities and I hardly if ever have the need to go there. If a car is moving (slowly, I hope) and it's already partially through a cross walk, pedestrians here think we should stop a several ton moving vehicle for them. I stop before the crosswalk but if there are no pedestrians, obviously I keep going but I have had pedestrians run to get through and I've had to slam on my brakes even though I'm driving slowly. A couple of years ago a man, holding his wife's hand, decided to walk through while I was driving. I kept going thinking that he'd realize I had to but he didn't and he stopped right in front of my car. I got out of my car and he and his wife ran inside the store so that tells me that he knew he was wrong. I see mothers doing this w/their toddlers a lot and I just wonder why they feel the necessity to take such a risk w/their childrens' precious lives. What say you?

ETA: I forgot to mention here that the reason I got out of my car is because after he stopped in front of it, he actually punched the hood of my car!

Well, in this part of Ohio we have crosswalks. I walk a lot, and I can tell you that 95% of the time people do NOT stop for me at a crosswalk, or in a crosswalk. I can be with my son in a stroller, and people fly by as if I am invisible. The worst offenders? Middle-aged caucasian women- by far.

My friend and I were out walking in March and each had our child in a jogger, and she had two dogs flanking her jogger. We were- no flipping lie- on the corner, AT a crosswalk, in plain view of a police cruiser....not one car stopped. I said something to the cop and he said, "we have no law to enforce that". WHAT? WHAT? You lazy cop....

I cannot understand people in cars that think they have this "right" to ignore others on or about the roadway. You would think they would slow it down, and grant the right of way, especially when in all but the most unusual circumstances they would be found at fault.

[Medusa]

As I said, downtown there are crosswalks but I don't go there at all. I'm talking about crosswalks in strip malls that pedestrians decide to cross when a car is halfway through it. I always give pedestrians the right of way but if they're nowhere near the crosswalk, for ex., walking from their parked cars toward it, I slowly inch my car through. Inevitably, though, a pedestrian will decide to run in front of my car, many times not even in the crosswalk and then decide to do a dead stop and stare at me, challenging me. I still don't understand why a mother holding her toddler's hand or pushing one in a stroller would take such a chance but I see it a lot.

[phesina]

I'm wondering if, God forbid, a pedestrian or biker would get hit by a car because they were on the wrong side of the road, how responsible do you think the driver would be according to the law? I pray it never happens here but w/the kids out of school, they're walking along the roads here a lot and riding their bikes, too, of course on the wrong side of the road.

One afternoon I was about to walk across the street-- Mass. Ave. in Harvard Square, one-way and VERY busy. I looked in the direction the traffic was coming from and it was clear enough to go, so I started across... and WHAMO! I got hit and knocked right over by some idiot going the wrong way on a bike! And did this clown stop to help me up or see if I was all right? NOOOOooo... she just kept right on riding as fast as she could. GRRRRrrrr..

[Medusa]

One afternoon I was about to walk across the street-- Mass. Ave. in Harvard Square, one-way and VERY busy. I looked in the direction the traffic was coming from and it was clear enough to go, so I started across... and WHAMO! I got hit and knocked right over by some idiot going the wrong way on a bike! And did this clown stop to help me up or see if I was all right? NOOOOooo... she just kept right on riding as fast as she could. GRRRRrrrr..

Wow, I'm sorry that happened to you, Pat. This is just the type of incident that I'm afraid of.

[phesina]

Fortunately I wasn't hurt, but boy was I p*ssed!

[Karen]

One afternoon I was about to walk across the street-- Mass. Ave. in Harvard Square, one-way and VERY busy. I looked in the direction the traffic was coming from and it was clear enough to go, so I started across... and WHAMO! I got hit and knocked right over by some idiot going the wrong way on a bike! And did this clown stop to help me up or see if I was all right? NOOOOooo... she just kept right on riding as fast as she could. GRRRRrrrr..

What you may not realize, the rest of the universe, is that this is typical of bicyclists in Harvard Square. One pass through Harvard Square in the morning - on foot or by car - will make one despise bicyclists. They act as if they own the road, and sometimes the sidewalk, and laws do not apply to them. It's awful!

Go another mile down Mass Ave., and you're in Central Square, where pedestrians normally are compelled to walk in front of cars, but when it's raining, they RUN into moving traffic - just when the roads are wet enough so you may skid a bit ... NOT for the faint of heart.

[phesina]

What you may not realize, the rest of the universe, is that this is typical of bicyclists in Harvard Square. One pass through Harvard Square in the morning - on foot or by car - will make one despise bicyclists. They act as if they own the road, and sometimes the sidewalk, and laws do not apply to them. It's awful!
.

You're absolutely right about that, Karen. I really hated them there, not the bike riders who followed the laws and common courtesy but the ones who were so arrogant and holier-than-thou about using pollution-free transportation that they didn't need to give a flying f**k about the rest of the universe.

You get a lot of that type here (Ann Arbor) too, but nothing like Harvard Square!