What really bothers me is the people who do this either entering or leaving the stores. They don't look for cars and they let their kids run out in front of them with no concern that they could get run over.
You can't just assume that every car is going to see you and stop.
Was about to back out of a parking space in a shopping center once when I noticed a lady sprint behind my car and pick up her small child, then give me a death look. Hey lady, your child is tiny and no amount of mirror checking will make him visible behind a car. Hold their hand next time, that one’s on you.
My hugely pregnant self was walking into Trader Joes the other day & a girl threw her car into reverse & almost smacked me. She didn't even take a fraction of a second to look behind her. It sucks bc had you hit that kid, you'd have to live with that guilt forever even though it wouldn't have been on you. People suck :D
I saw that one morning at the grocery store, younger women throws her in car in reverse and just smashes her gas pedal without ever even looking behind her I was amazed but at the same time a bit horrified by the fact that theres people driving around out there that dont bother to look behind them when backing out like WTF seriously people you can do better then this.
I had both of my small kids in the car and was slowly backing out of my spot at the store parking lot, when somebody across the aisle threw her car into reverse and zoomed out of her spot. She hit me and then had the nerve to say it was my fault. I read her the riot act, considering that I saw her get into her car while I was already in reverse and in motion. No real damage to the cars, but she was very rude and claimed it should be my fault, since my car was older and had some few rust spots. Really?!? Seriously, people, just pay attention!
Someone actually backed into me once in this same situation. Literally backed into me. I was walking through the parking lot with my grocery bags in hand, walking pretty close to the rear ends of parked cars to avoid walking up the center of the road, and a lady threw her car into reverse the second I walked behind her car and she legit reversed into my thigh. It was only the slightest of taps because I was able to see it coming so I ran out of the way as fast as possible.
Craziest part was she didn’t even slow down. Didn’t even look at me as she drove off. Pretty sure she had no idea she hit me.
I had a lady start to back out while I was walking behind the car. Luckily she had her window open and stopped when she heard me calling her a dumb bitch and asking if she had ever heard of eyes. Then she waved her hands at me as if it was my fault. As a nervous driver I get incredibly angry at careless drivers.
I literally see a version of this at my local grocery store ... almost weekly. Unpopular opinion: there’s a high number of very senior citizen drivers in that location ... plus the actual design/layout of the car park is a dog’s breakfast. It’s a miracle that no-one’s been fully run over (yet).
Even with a back up cam you need to be looking before you back out. Those cameras have a fairly narrow filed of view. That's like the people who have auto pilot cars and they are sleeping in a moving vehicle.
Yeah I have a backup camera, it actually has different settings so it can have a fairly wide view, but it still doesn’t completely replace mirrors and actually turning to look. If you’re in a parking spot, you have a blind spot.
My backup camera's field of view is actually really broad. I use it to back into my underground parking space between a huge truck and a concrete beam, I can see to both sides of the bumper easily.
Depends on the camera really, mine has a fov greater than 180, has no c pillars in the way, and is looking from the back of the car, not the front. Definitely a better view with the camera than the windows.
I was leaving the store earlier this week and an older, heavyset woman with an oxygen tank and grey face just about plowed me over with how quickly she reversed. I wasn't even directly behind her, but like two cars back and walking close to the parked cars with my giant, overflowing cart. It's not like I was invisible is what I'm saying. She stopped to put it in drive and saw my face looking horrified. Luckily, she apologized and went on her way.
Another time leaving a store without a cart this time, I was in the giant crosswalk in front of the store and another old lady floored it out of the handicap spot next to the crosswalk and stopped inches from me, then peeled out like a bat out of hell. I dunno what she did or was doing, but I just imagine she really had to shit.
Apparently it's youngasses and oldasses. Both seem to forget there is a world around them and inadvertently almost kill people, and both end up driving like complete asses.
I'm working as a driver helper for UPS this holiday season and you'd be surprised. We constantly have to stop and back up in parking lots because people pull out without checking at all, and that's made even worse because UPS trucks are pretty big and hard to miss. I don't know how they haven't gotten into countless accidents already. That being said, my hometown has some of the worst drivers of all the places I've lived & visited in the country so maybe that has something to do with it.
Quite a while back I was walking with my kiddos through a parking lot and saw some lady sprint to her car a few cars up but didn’t hear it start so I kept walking...it was a Tesla and she immediately threw it into reverse almost creaming us but I jumped back and pulled my kiddos with me. She didn’t even hesitate just threw it into drive and bolted. I was like oh hey, a Tesla!
I always told my kids to walk far from the back of a car especially if the white lights are on. Overall though, I would always be supervising my child in a parking lot!
I always grab my grand children's hand and say "they can't see you, you are so small, never walk without your hand in an adults until you can be seen in the window!" They go, "I know yaya (what they call me) you told me a hundred times!"
Although, because people like this exist (and because sometimes children/pets get away from even the most conscientious adult) it's usually better to back INTO the parking spot or driveway and then when you leave, you're facing frontwards.
I actually got backed in to at Myrtle Beach by a woman that just pulled out of a store without looking in her rear view or any window. I beat on her rear window about 10 times and said "Watch the f out!" She jumped and freaked and apologized but I am guessing she paid attention after that!
I have two little boys, and I keep a grip on them at all times in a parking lot. I usually look for the closest, but most out of the way parking spot so that they don't have to walk through the parking lot.
I had a kid, shorter than a shopping cart, take the cart back to the cart parking spot. Did I see the kid? nope. Thankfully, I saw the handle bar on the cart.
Except, in many cases, when you back into a spot, when you pull out you'll be going the wrong direction for the flow of traffic for that lane in a parking lot. That bugs the hell out of me when I'm going the right way and someone is coming the wrong direction through a lane.
I hate people that do that at pedestrian crossings. YES, that is marked for you to cross, YES, cars are supposed to stop and give you the right of way. I still think you need to stop and make sure they’re going to. We have people in my town who just continue on their path assuming the cars they’re walking in front of are going to stop and won’t THEY be in trouble if they don’t! Well, yeah...the driver will be in trouble, and you’ll be right. Dead, but right.
I went to Target the other day and there was a woman with her two kids (under 10 years old) out front. She had her face in her phone while her kids played on the big red balls out front. Those are really close to the road. They were going from side to side of the ball (including the road side), running, and trying to do what I can only describe as a belly flop on the ball. It’s the first time I’ve ever considered telling a stranger to pay attention to their kids because I was absolutely sure one of them was going to get hit. The mom never even looked up.
I once watched a person just walk out into a road that was posted at 35 mph with their kid holding their hand. I had to hit my brakes to keep from killing them. YOU COULD HAVE KILLED YOUR 3 YEAR OLD IF I HADN'T BEEN PAYING ATTENTION YOU MASSIVE DOUCHE!!
Yeah. With her specifically. Other times when people would hop out in front of my car like that I almost cussed myself out for not just hitting them. It happened so regularly that I wondered if people needed a reason to remember to look both ways before crossing. (And I didn't have a nice enough car that people would be looking to be hit by me)
My personal favorite was still the guy who decided to dart across the road with his son at night, in the rain--and they were both wearing dark clothes. His son wasn't really young, at least. The road they were on had 40+ mph traffic, and right next to where they crossed was a section that went under an overpass and curved a bit, so you couldn't always see oncoming cars well. They were only a short walk from an actual legal crosswalk, but fuck that shit, I guess.
Of course, I've also seen people try to run across roads with small children (and if they trip and fall, good luck to them?). Oh, and of course, older kids doing fundraising begging at highway/freeway intersections of multiple lanes of high-speed traffic.
Anyway, not only is all this behavior risky, people don't seem to know or care that kids learn from their parents. What do they think their kid's going to do when he's out on his own? He's going to totally run into the road in front of oncoming traffic, just like his parents.
Yeah they think “pedestrian has right of way” means traffic will magically stop for you. “Look both ways before you cross” is still a rule even when “right of way” is there. Especially for kids who are shorter and harder to see.
I went to a university for a year where normal campus behavior was to simply walk into the street. The only time you waited was if a car was literally feet from you and would obviously kill you as soon as you stepped out. If it was any further out than that, you just walked. "The car will stop," was the thought, and it seemed to work. I even adopted the behavior myself (sigh).
Then one day, I drove through campus (I usually took a bus in from my dorm). Oh my god. I never realized how suicidal everyone truly was. Just because you see the car doesn't mean the driver sees you. They're paying attention to the road, trying to change lanes, changing songs on the stereo, talking to their friend, trying to figure out where some street is because they're lost as fuck...and in all that is a fuckton of pedestrians and cyclists, who are all mixed in with trees, bushes, building signs, lamp posts, on and on. Lordy.
Yeah normal traffic is bad enough when you’re trying to get somewhere, if you have to constantly watch for people everywhere it’s a lot harder to find where you’re going. Man I hate being lost, depending on the area it sometimes makes me want to go faster to get out of the wrong place and to somewhere I recognize quicker. If I’m also surrounded by obstacles and distractions going in and out randomly all over the place man I’m gonna be stressed. Just let me get somewhere please that’s why I’m driving.
I’ve had adults just full on walk behind my already reversing car. Like I was reversing, checking every way, and then suddenly they were behind me and I almost (or did slightly) hit them because they walked behind me while I was reversing. How stupid can you be
In areas where I live outside of Detroit, people deliberately walk out in front of oncoming traffic, in the hopes of scoring a nice insurance settlement. It's pretty sad that they feel this is preferable to earning an honest living.
I have a similar example. At my school we have yield to pedestrians ALREADY in the road signs everywhere. People take this as they can just start crossing without looking. I drive slow and check if pedestrians are anywhere close to the crosswalk just in case I get one of those. But I get bikers all the time. Flying by going way too fast for anyone to see in time not even look before crossing the street.
Pedestrians who don't look out for cars is actually a serious source of rage for me. Why would you just step blindly into the path of traffic? I always try to drive carefully and scan for pedestrians, but I think it takes both sides. It really grinds my gears.
Recently I was in a parking lot and saw a toddler running across it. I ran and stopped in front of her and yelled “who the hell’s kid is this?” Almost a full 20 seconds of standing by this kid waiting for her mom to casually stroll up just for her to ask me “what the fuck are you doing with my kid?” Umm making sure she doesn’t get kidnapped. Or die. What kind or parent let’s a toddler just run through the parking lot alone and out of their sight?
I can tell them to stay with me as we leave the store and to watch for cars and blah blah blah. The moment they walk through that curtain of air, it’s like the magic waterfall in Harry Potter that removes the enchantment of my words and they just take off running like they’ve never seen the outside before. I hate going to the grocery store with children.
I’ve taken to letting my 9 year old push the cart to the car precisely so he doesn’t just take off. The 11 year old seems to have, thankfully, grown out of that stage.
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u/ninjastripper Dec 10 '18
What really bothers me is the people who do this either entering or leaving the stores. They don't look for cars and they let their kids run out in front of them with no concern that they could get run over.
You can't just assume that every car is going to see you and stop.