Car blocking crossing and hand signal telling me to go

[TomorrowToday]

I'm walking to the Drs minding my own business with my baby in his bassinet.

A car wants to turn direction so drives into a side street to do it. The side street is a dead end and like all drivers they want to turn their car at the entrance to the road.

I stop a couple of metres from the crossing as the car starts to reverse into the pavement and goes up it a little bit. I'm unsure if the driver sees me.

The passenger winds down their window and hand signals to me to pass.... When they've blocked the dropped curb as well as are making my journey harder.... basically the car bonnet was facing the pram and the direction of the pavement. I don't see why a pedestrian should be inconvenienced by a car, especially with a bassinet.

Aibu for not following the orders/direction of the car driver?

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

The art of communication may have proved useful is this situation - all you had to say to the car driver and passenger, who I am sure were trying to be helpful, was "thank you that is kind, but you go then I can use the drop kerb which is easier with the pram". The driver would have turned and driven off, you would have crossed the road and all would have been well.

Op you are coming across as really over reacting, this isn’t a situation to give a second thought, maybe they thought they were being polite letting you cross, maybe you were blocking their vision of the road, who knows, who cares it’s really a non issue.

@schloss mate it was literally all I did. I stood still, raised my hand to say no thanks. Verbally told them I need the dropped curb. Used my hand to tell them to go. Everything. The cat wouldn't move.

A car mounting a pavement is the greatest danger. It can move before I'm having to walk in the other road. Not an over reaction in the slightest

You are catastrophising, the car was trying to do a manoeuvre, they had obviously seen you as they signalled you to cross so they could complete the manoeuvre.

It's still KERB!

Then you had to make a decision, the simplest would have been to walk behind the car which was not moving anywhere. If I had been driving, and in what looks like from your diagram, a tight turn, moving close to someone with a baby in a pram, I would have preferred to do it when you had cleared the area.

There are times in life when neither party are wrong and decisions have to be made. In this situation you either had to wait until the car turned, which I believe you may have done, great everyone then gets on with their day, or walk around the car, great again the day goes on.

Either way it is done, the moment has passed and not worth another thought.

@schloss I wasn't given the option of staying where I was. He forced me to move. The best option would have been for him to get out the way as I requested. I wasn't in his way, he had already reversed on the curb.

@meisafairy doing what? The car was on the pavement. Had already reversed in my direction. How about it can move out of the way. Can trust the car and I'm the one who will be worse of if hit. Would take him seconds to move. My access to the dropped curb was blocked

Looking at this from the driver's point of view, I think that he probably didn't realise that he was over the dropped kerb and that he felt it was safer for you if you were out of his way before he finished his manoeuvre. I would simply have gone further up the cul de sac and crossed there away from this junction rather than walking onto the main road. Dropped kerbs are useful but the only time I felt the need for them was pushing my DF in a wheelchair.

You could actually have stood there … he may have been gesturing for you to move .. but you could have actually sternly told him you’re not going anywhere - saying it’s ok I’ll wait, indicates you were gentle in your approach. So no, he didn’t force you to move. The more you post the more daft you look. Majority of posters are saying you’re wrong, just move on …

That's exactly what I did. And him and his passenger kept on shouting at me. I also had a doctor's appointment I was running late for.

I’m guessing he wanted you to go first and didn’t want to move the car because he was embarrassed and maybe a bit clueless about how to manoeuvre safely?

I live rurally with lots of narrow single track lanes and come across numerous drivers who can’t reverse, particularly during the summer holiday season and they end up with their car stuck at an odd angle and desperate for the other car to clear the way for them to drive forwards.

What world do people think it's ok for a car to block a pedestrians path and a pedestrian has to walk around the car
Sadly, @TomorrowToday the same world where drivers think it's ok to park half or wholly on pavement's so pedestrians have to walk into the road to get around them.

Drivers giving pedestrians orders is very imperious, just don't drive like a dick in the first place

So frustrating

That's exactly how I feel

This

Your first post said hand signals but you've changed to shouting at you.....@TomorrowToday

Why not put that in the first post?

This is such a non issue. Driver starts doing a manoeuvre, sees pedestrian, signals to pedestrian to pass so driver can complete manoeuvre. Absolutely use your own judgement - if you are not comfortable crossing, then don't. But as PP have said, the thing to do is step back, turn your back and be busy on your phone. I don't know where you live, but I live in a busy city. There are always obstructions on the pavement - gas works, tree felling, concrete deliveries etc. You just walk round.

I think car driver was trying to not disrupt you but ended up doing so if that makes sense cause it seems they could have just drove off quickly but wanted to let you pass
But in anything your own judgement as others have said

Because it literally didn’t happen .. OP is raising the story as she goes. It’s all a non incident and she just can’t leave it.

But it’s not exactly what you did - you proceeded to walk into a road around the car. You had 2 other options but chose not to do them 🤷🏻‍♀️

To be fair, and this is the only thing I’m defending OP on, I’ve only ever heard bassinet used by Americans and curb is an acceptable spelling in the States. Maybe that’s why she’s using it.