AIBU to want all "riff raff" sent to mars or similar?

[navyeyelasH]

In the last 5 days I have had:

Thieves break into my home and steal my car

Abuse hurled at me by a group of teens because I asked them to be a bit quieter in the pictures

My new (w reg but have owned it for 2 days to replace stolen car)car keyed in Ikea car park and an abusive note left on my windscreen (I stupidly thought it was going to be a sorry note with insurance details!)

A man punch my hire car window (didn't break luckily) because I beeped him in a beep beep not an angry BEEEEEEEEEP fashion because he walked out infront of me at a junction and I wasn't sure if he had seen me.

I live in quite a nice area And I'm so fed up. It makes me want to turn into a vicious hard as nails, "say/do that to me again and I'll kick your arse" type.

[navyeyelasH]

..

[caramelwaffle]

YANBU

[HomeTalk]

Never rains but it pours eh?

Poor you, it is hard not to feel that te world is against you sometimes.

YANBU

[caramelwaffle]

However - riff-raff I find is a very old fashion term.

Scum 's is what I called the people who burgled my house recently.

[GypsyMoth]

go to bed and stay there!!

[cheesesarnie]

blimey!!!your having a rubbish time atm!

i agree go to bed and snuggle up for a week!

[nowseehere]

YANBU. Send them all to room 101.

[roneef]

Don't blame you for feeling like that.

YANBU

[MillyR]

While I appreciate you are having a bad time, the pedestrian probably walked out in front of you at the junction because pedestrians have right of way at most junctions (obviously not at places like slip roads to motorways!). It isn't that he did not see you; if you beeped it is presumably because you were driving too fast to stop to let the pedestrian cross safely.

[navyeyelasH]

Thanks for the sympathy, just what I needed!

MillyR am not sure what your post is trying to say but even if the pedestiran did have the right of way that is still no excuse to punch my window especially since I had a child in te back that could have easily of been injured by the glass!

As it actually hapens, I was pulling out of the junction doing approx 5mph straddled across 2 lanes of oncomong traffic and the pedestrian waltzed in the arrogant way some do across the road infront of me causing me to jam on my breaks and also causing 2 cars in each direction to jam on their breaks one of which managed to rear end another car.

Like I said I beeped to let the pedestrian know I was in a car about 1 meter away from him and that had I been driving any faster could have done him a lot of damage!

Also I have never heard that pedestrians have right away at junctions that sounds insane! I am sure there is some sort of caveat to that?

[IUsedToBePeachy]

I mentioned on another thread that I have noted a rise in this sort of thing altely; brought to my attention by the chap who reversed at us as we descended a m-way sliproad yesterday and refused to shift as we almost crashed

I think that was possibly the fiorst time I ever gave anyone the finger but I was furious! there was a traffic jam there but so bloody what, there was no exit any other way as A road also still.

And I witnessed a tosser give out amssively to a young mum today whose buggya ccidentally rgazed his wife's seat- his wife was angry with him, not her yet he couldnt see the wrong

[Takver]

Where do you live?
It doesn't sound like a nice area to me

[navyeyelasH]

I live in North Briatol, honestly it is nice and these events have occured all over Bristol.

I also forgot but last week I was turning right nd waiting for a gap in the oncoming traffic and a man was behind me but had no room to go around so was shouting and swearing at me too hurry up and giving me the finger etc. He had his roof down so I could hear every shouted word!

[MillyR]

OP, it is rule 170 of the highway code. Crossing at a junction is no more of an 'arrogant' act than 'waltzing' across a zebra crossing. The pedestrian has right of way and the car should stop. I am not sure why that should be considered controversial.

Obviously I was not there so I have no idea if you were in the right or the wrong. But I would be really angry if a car did not stop when I was crossing at a junction. Nobody dies from someone punching a window; pedestrians do die from cars failing to give way to pedestrians. As I say, I do not if you were in the right or wrong, but I do know that you are not familiar with the highway code. That is worrying.

[Paolosgirl]

I'm dying to know what the abusive letter on your windscreen said!

[navyeyelasH]

MillyR, if a pedestrian was already crossing a junction of course I would give way or if I was stopped at a junction I would give way. I consider that to be common courtesy and assumed everyone would do the same? I did not realise it was part of the highway code.

This guy was quite far away from the junction when I pulled out of the junction, as in not waiting to cross. I pulled out of the junction and was across 2 lanes of traffic when he ran up the pavement and waltzed into the road infront of my car.

He had an ipod in and didn't look so I beeped, he crossed the road into the other lane with traffic coming in the opposite direction to the way I was travelling. I beeped A)to alert him I was there and B) in the hope he would check the next lane was clear. The next lane was not clear and he still walked out.

Surely the highway code does not say that is correct?

Paolosgirl the note said something like: "Could you not park any closer to my car? You drive like a cunt learn to park you twat." I was parked within my bay lines slightly to the left of the bay. The car on my right was to the left of their bay and the car who left the note was on my left and he was parked to the right of his bay. We were all in our bay lines and my DP got out of the passenger side with ease, he is 6ft 3and not exactly slim!

[mathanxiety]

I once got a rude note like that about my parking skills. I was approaching my well-parked car when I saw this rather fat woman write something on a piece of paper, spit on it, and slam it down on my windshield, then squeeze herself into her own car. She actually spat on it...

[MarsLady]

I don't want them thanks!

[EyeballsintheSky]

What has her size got to do with it?

MillyR sorry but you're coming across as a bit pompous. Hard to say really without knowing what sort of juncton the op is talking about but thumping the windscreen of a car containing just a woman and child is hooliganism. But glad you think it's excusable...

[EyeballsintheSky]

'If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way.'

This chap apparently hadn't, so the op was in the right.

[limonchik]

I'm a non-driver and am often pissed off with drivers - but would still never punch someone's window, even if I was in the right! I think that level of aggression is totally unacceptable.

[mathanxiety]

Eyeballsinthesky -- I mentioned the other driver's size because she couldn't fit into the perfectly reasonable space between my car and hers because she was so fat. (This was in the US, where 'fat' really means something) The gist of her rude note was that I was a terrible parker besides the other negative personal characteristics that she indicated, but there was at least a foot between my car and the line, and her car had at least a foot again on the other side of the line. My parking skills had nothing at all to do with her inability to open the door of her car and get in, it was just her doughnut habit. I was 8 months pg at the time and smaller than her.

[WebDude]

Agree, limonchik - no need for agression, but some drivers (have been a pedestrian all my life, and am in the second half, I suspect, now) really are utter fools.

When I started work in this area 20 years ago (um, next month, really has been a long time!) I walked to work each morning, negotiating a 7-road roundabout. I always walked in an anti-clockwise direction, so I would be crossing in front of cars slowing to get onto the roundabout.

However, drivers coming to roundabouts tend to (a) be going as fast as they can, unless they can see lots of traffic filling their path and (b) seem to be looking right, as they approach the junction, looking for a gap.

I walk at a fair speed, and avoid getting in the way, but when someone suddenly puts his foot down, and you then see the shock on his face as he spots you and thinks "oh no, there's a damn pedestrian in my way", it did get me close to damaging his car (if I hadn't been hurling myself out of his path, and cursing him in my head!) but not by me purposely hitting it, but him, hitting me!

They now have traffic lights at that roundabout and I've not worked on that estate for at least 16 years, but if drivers were tested every 5 or 10 years, the roads would be far safer for everyone. That was a fairly isolated incident, but I still see lots of examples of people driving too fast for the (wet) conditions, and driving far too fast when they are going through some parts of town, or small villages, where the roads are narrow, and cars are parked on the street (because the terraces don't have any other parking and these days households often have 2 or even 3 cars).

Note: Even 20 years ago, I would be listening to radio on headphones, but still paid attention to traffic. I was out of my twenties, then, and had been walking while listening to radio for at least 15 years before moving to N Wales, with full size headphones ('cans') plugged into a small tranny radio... R1 was on AM 247m, when I walked to school, of course, with Noel's breakfast show !

Areas which seems almost as dangerous as that roundabout in the rush hour, are where you, dear drivers, go on a regular basis, and probably have a lot to think about, whether alone or with youngsters... they are supermarket car parks.

Talk about a place where drivers assume everyone is telepathic and know what they're planning, where indicators seem out of fashion, and an attitude of "I want to park { in the shade / near the entrance / near the cashpoint / in that spot } and screw anyone or anything which is in my way" seems to take over.

It's simply selfish, and there's nothing I can think of to excuse the attitude - don't care whether they are running late for an appointment, or how stressed by work - a car can be a dangerous object and humans are easily damaged...

I feel for the OP - bad enough week without this lot on top, and that rude note was inexcusable.

[navyeyelasH]

phew - for a moment there I thought I was being over sensitive by MillyR's frankly weird viewpoint that punching (twice) a car window is ok!

No wonder society has gone to pot with attitudes like that! Wouldn't it make your life much less stressful MollyR if instead of walking around with this sense of entitlement you treated all other road useres with respect?

I don't need some highway code to tell me it's not polite to not give way to pedestrians in some instances. Why don't you opersate on your own moral code rather than some sense of entitlement instilled by a little book?

If a driver is already pulling away from a junction it would be sheer madness to step out infront of the car even if the highway coe says this is fine (which I don't think it actually does).

Also I don't understand your ref to the zebra crossing? I do not find waltzing across a zebra crossing in any way arrogant. This is the thing I really dislike about the internet. You don't you read what I write instead of inferring I am some maniac arrogant driver out to kill every pedestrian.

You can see I've had a bad week and am feeling pretty "most of society is made of shits!" right now and you're not really helping that.

[navyeyelasH]

I have just looked up rule 170 of the highway code. You give way to pedestriand already crossing a road into which you are turning. IMO my initial post and subsequent post made it clear that my car was already away from the junction.

I would consider it common courtesy to stop in such an instance; not to mention the fact that if I didn't stop I would hit the pedestrian! Surely pedestrians do not get grief in this instance?

I have been driving for 2 years and still walk quite a lot and I agree with many here (esp WebDude) that some (maybe even most!) drivers are maniacs. My personal opinion is that many road users consider their needs and entitlements to be above everyone elses. You have pedestrians thinking it's their right to cross, car drivers thinking it's their right to proceede. What happened to good maners and consideration? I angered the pedestrian by beeping so he feels he has the right to punch my window. Madness.

I am only 26 and and frankly horrified by most of society right now; when you find a 26 year ls saying, "it never used to be like this when I was a child" you know something is not quite right.

PS> I do not read the dailyhatemail, honest!