"you should watch where you're walking!"

[bmccasland]

I went to one of the local malls today, to run some errands, and to treat myself to lunch at a brewpub there.

While strolling through the parking lot towards the mall, a black Mercedes SUV starts pulling out right in front of me. I stop in my tracks, and look towards the driver, expecting him to perhaps check his mirrors and see me. Nope, he's chatting on his cell phone as his vehicle continues to roll. So as it rolls in front of me, I tap his window. He looks at me, still on the phone, then keeps moving. I walk on. As he passes me, he says through his now open window, "do I know you?"

"No, but you almost hit me as you were pulling out."

"Well, you should watch where you're walking!"

(I had to get in the last word.....)
And you should hang up your cell phone when you drive!


The beer was nice and cold in the brew pub.

[Zen]

Don't you know who that was?
It was Mr. Important!
Mr Important is a moron and karma is a beach.

[Eden]

I stepped out into a crosswalk today (one with a stop sign, so cars had to stop or be stopped anyway). The driver who was stopped started to go, slammed his brakes back on, then threw up his hands..... then he wanted to know why I was glaring at him.....

Dummy - you need to look at the whole picture - cross streets and sidewalks before you start to go, you can't just be on autopilot, stop and then go without looking and then to have the audacity to act frustrated. He's lucky my mouth was full or he'd have got more than a glare.

[XMcShiftersonX]

Good work Beth! People are such assholes these days, and the cell phone has a lot to do with it!

[HoosierGiant]

Don't you know who that was?
It was Mr. Important!
Mr Important is a moron and karma is a beach.
HA! Oh sooooo true!

[zoom-zoom]

Good work Beth! People are such assholes these days, and the cell phone has a lot to do with it!

Yep...add a big luxury SUV to the mix and it's an a-hole with a penis extender. Ick.

[Crankin]

Yesterday, I almost got "crashed" by a woman in the grocery store, wheeling her cart, while talking on the phone. She continued to talk on the phone through more than half of her time there, so I just glared at her every time she passed me in the aisle. I only held my tongue because her teenaged son was with her. It was late afternoon and the store was crowded.
Zoom-Zoom, my DH drives a big, luxury SUV. I think he would have laughed at the penis extender idea.
He doesn't drive and talk, though.

[zoom-zoom]

Yesterday, I almost got "crashed" by a woman in the grocery store, wheeling her cart, while talking on the phone. She continued to talk on the phone through more than half of her time there, so I just glared at her every time she passed me in the aisle. I only held my tongue because her teenaged son was with her. It was late afternoon and the store was crowded.
Zoom-Zoom, my DH drives a big, luxury SUV. I think he would have laughed at the penis extender idea.
He doesn't drive and talk, though.

Ha...I think it's that cell-phone thing that separates the drivers from the "Mr. Importants." All too often I get the feeling that the bigger the vehicle, the less a person thinks they need to be careful. As if they feel that the smaller guys need to just get out of their way. There seems to be a false sense of safety with SUVs for a lot of people. I know one of my best friends has admitted that she has to remind herself that 4WD doesn't mean she is immune to bad roads and that her vehicle really isn't safer than smaller ones (and she requires more distance to stop and is at greater risk of roll-over), but she sometimes doesn't drive as defensively as she did when she drove a smaller car.

The grocery gabber--ugh, they annoy me. Never fails that when I am trying to get in-and-out quick that I get stuck in aisles with several of these. And they are always completely oblivious to the other shoppers around them.

[OakLeaf]

Unfortunately, it's not just the big SUVs any more.

I've seen people riding motorcycles talking on the phone. :eek::mad::mad:

I ride with a guy who will sometimes take phone calls in a paceline (not a tight or extremely hard paceline, but still).

Part of it is "Mr. Important," certainly, but I think most of it is the culture that lets people believe that they don't need to pay attention when they're on the road. Honestly I see more women (and girls) than men and boys talking on the phone while driving.

I mean, just start the topic on this very forum of wearing an iPod while running or riding... :rolleyes::cool:

[PscyclePath]

Zoom-Zoom, my DH drives a big, luxury SUV. I think he would have laughed at the penis extender idea.

A Ford F-150 crew cab (with the extra chrome package) here, and I can assure you that no, ma'am, it doesn't work that way ;-)

[XMcShiftersonX]

I'm so glad they just made talking or texting on a cell phone (as well as reading, etc.) while driving in Washington State illegal. It's about time. Our culture has allowed people to think that it's no big deal to do while driving, and I think now that so many people are getting killed and hurt because of it, people are taking notice. However, I'm interested to see how far this goes, as a lot of people still drink and drive, and it's a similar situation.

I think part of it is you get all these smart phones, and programs like Facebook and the more you use them, the more you get addicted to them, and you begin to think as soon as you get a message or call you NEED to respond. I got my first smart phone about a year ago, and I fell into that same trap. But after "being connected" all the time, I realized I liked life better before, and recently deleted my facebook account, and now leave my cell phone off or on vibrate when out in public.

[Crankin]

I agree with the 4 WD stuff. I have had one for years (although now I have a smaller AWD sedan), as it went a long way in reducing my fear at having to learn to drive in the snow at age 37. But, I always say 4WD does not mean 4 wheel stop! For a few years I had a 40 mile commute, one way to work. There were a couple of years with just horrible blizzards, where I would routinely see people flying by me in their 4WD cars, only to see them a bit later, rolled over, in the ditch.
Yes, I am not sure why people feel the need to be so connected constantly. I just don't have that many people to talk to, or that much to say. It's like they lose sight of everything that's going on around them, because they are on the phone.

Psyclepath, I have had similar thoughts about guys who drive around here with their snowplow attached to the front of their huge trucks, as soon as the calendar turns to November!

[Eden]

It's like they lose sight of everything that's going on around them, because they are on the phone.

It's exactly like that..... studies have shown that hands free devices in cars are really no safer than cell phones without headsets..... but no legislator has yet had the cahones to put an out right ban them while driving for everyone, though it is now illegal for teens with learner permits or intermediate (restricted) licenses to do any phoning at all, hands free or not, here in Washington.

[bmccasland]

Numb-nut was on a hand-held cell. One would think that if he could afford a Mercedes SUV, he could afford the hands-free blue tooth too. :rolleyes:

[Selkie]

He's probably LEASING the car (she says in a snobbish/elitist tone!). ;-)

There was a recent article in the NYT about how these devices are making people less able to focus. Call me old fashioned but I refuse to buy an Ipod, blackberry, etc. My cell phone is for emergency use only. Luckily, none of this stuff can come inside the buildings at work (actually, I feel bad for anyone who HAS to have one of these devices for their job---seems like a 24/7 tether to the office....)

Yesterday at a red light, the woman in the car next to me was texting, kept looking up to see if the light had changed. Her window was open. I couldn't resist..... down went my passenger window, "HEY, quit text and pay attention to the road." up went my window...... I had to do it.

[HipGnosis6]

I almost got hit today by a guy on his cell phone on his bike. And I've all but stopped bothering calling out when I'm passing pedestrians and joggers because so many of them are listening to music or talking on their phone.

[Owlie]

Everyone who is likely to call me (family, BF, close friends) knows that I will not answer my phone while driving. I've seen people texting while riding a bike..how the heck do you do that?

Yeah, I'm guilty of walking around and talking on my cell (or plugged into my iPod), but I'm good about not running into people and checking intersections before I cross streets. People on paths--I check to see if they have music (iPod headphones are nice for that) before yelling. usually the ones on the phone hear me. The ones with music, I try to get around them as quickly as possible.

[marni]

I just love to shout out the acronym "gotpha" (get off the phone a******) or "gotphi" (get off the phone idiot) at people in cars when I ride by or as they pass me. Doesn't affect them but it makes me feel better.

I do wish texas would start applying some no texting or cell phone or hands free driving rules in areas other than selected school.zones.

marni

[Tri Girl]

and he had the balls to tell YOU to watch where YOU'RE walking?? WoW!:eek:

I swear, I just have that feeling I will be killed or maimed one day by a distracted driver (either texting or talking). Don't mean to sound gloomy, but I've had close calls in the past and since I have no intention of ever stopping riding my bike- I fear the situation will only keep getting worse. People just don't pay attention when they drive (and I've been guilty of that in the past myself). I don't use the phone in the car anymore at ALL. I'm not that important that a call can't wait 10 minutes.

marni- with yelling "gotpha"- LOVE it. ;)

[Roadtrip]

Actually most of these newer luxury cars have blue tooth build right in so there is no reason for someone in a Mercedes/BMW/Porsche/Lexus to be talking on a cell without hands free.

I admit I DO talk on the phone while in the car, but it's always with hands free or the speaker phone.

I thought about getting a newer CPO BMW as I saw how nice my co-workers car was... but then I rode with him a few times and changed my mind. He was a totally different person behind the wheel. He even joked how he might as well live up to the "prick" standard owning a BMW came with.

[Crankin]

Wait a minute.
I am not a p**** (I don't like saying that word, although I have no trouble with much worse). I don't see the connection here. Because you have a BMW you are an azzhole? Geez, I bought my little 325xi because it was a) a small sedan and b) it has AWD and a hill descender feature that I wanted. At the time, (2003) I had very little choice in finding a car that wasn't an SUV or mini van that had those features, besides a Subaru (which I had already had and hated).
Sure, my car can be driven very aggressively, since it goes quite fast very nicely, but that doesn't mean I drive that way.
And, I do not use my phone in the car at all (no Bluetooth here).
This reminds me of the guy at the beginning of the group ride I went to a couple of weeks ago; as I was lifting my bike out of the back of my car he said, "Wow, you can fit your bike in the back of that little BMW and it has all wheel drive?" I was like, yes, and that's why I bought it....

[Eden]

I admit I DO talk on the phone while in the car, but it's always with hands free or the speaker phone.

You should understand that it is actually no safer to use hands free, though no where in the states has any government been ballsy enough to ban phoning in cars entirely..... its not so much the hands factor as the brain occupied elsewhere factor when it comes to driving and cellphone use.

WA state just passed a no texting and no talking without hands free law. The press release announcing the law comes out and says right on it that no cell phone use in cars is safe, even though it allows hands free devices..... cops say hands free isn't safe, research studies say hands free isn't any safer.

Over three days, the subjects took the wheel in various ways: sober and off-the-phone; legally under the influence of orange-juice-and-vodka cocktails; while talking with a research assistant by hand-held cellphone; and chatting over a hands-free cellphone device. The result: Compared with drivers exceeding the legal blood alcohol limit, users of cellphones -- hand-held or hands-free -- reacted 18% more slowly to braking by the car in front and were more likely to get in a rear-end collision.


It's too bad when it comes to cars in the US, politicians are so frightened to actually pass laws that have a real effect or any teeth....