Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To treat certain pedestrians in this way?

171 replies

BosomForAPillow · 31/08/2009 19:59

You know when a pedestrian crosses in front of your car when they really don't have much time to do so (because you're driving towards that bit of road!), but instead of hurrying across, they strut/meander as if they have all the time in the world? I'm talking about teenagers usually, who seem to me to be doing this with "attitude" and just expect me to slow down/stop until they've ambled across.

Well, I've started spraying them with my windscreen wash.
AIBU?

OP posts:
SomeGuy · 01/09/2009 10:31

Well yes, you do have the power. Which makes a change. The average scummy youth acts as though he is all-powerful, which is why they jump in front of cars, etc. Most of them will never learn that they are anti-social scumbags, because society is scared of them.

If squirting them with a bit of water teaches them a bit of respect, great.

2shoes · 01/09/2009 10:34

op yabu and need to grow up and get a life

ginormoboobs · 01/09/2009 11:14

Nutters. Some people should not be allowed to drive.
If people crossing the road slowly pisses you off that much then you should just walk.

mmrsceptic · 01/09/2009 12:11

lol, spam

we're talking about normal women, not drivers who are going too fast to stop or don't care if they hit someone

they're never going to hit these people, never never never, i think that you can tell that much from the op and i think you've gone quite mad thinking that this is about road accidents

unless you are deliberately misunderstanding? everyone likes to get on their high horse about something

however it is quite likely that their cars could get stuff thrown at or wing mirrors twisted

it's one of those minor passive aggressive moments in life

like people holding the lift button open while they're talking on the phone, or creating a block at the bottom of the escalator while all their mates catch up

so yes, of course the power balance is the other way

of course i could hit you with my car but i'm not going to, whereas people who deliberately force normal speed travelling
cars to slow down and apparently expect the drivers to take more care over their health and safety than they do themselves well, they sound like they could be quite likely to chuck a pebble and the door or something if you annoy them

TsarChasm · 01/09/2009 12:15

Isn't using your car as some sort of tool to make a 'point' (ie weapon) against the law?

Nancy66 · 01/09/2009 12:18

when I am a pedestrian car drivers piss me off no end. When I'm in my car, pedestrians make me want to kill them.

I know what the poster means - if I'm turning right off a busy road into a side road and there's people crossing the side road and taking their time it is very dangerous for me to be sitting with the arse of my car hanging out onto a major A road.

I also can't stand pedestrians that think you have magic, instant brakes and decide to run out onto a zebra with no notice and without waiting to see if you can stop.

OrmIrian · 01/09/2009 12:27

"and apparently expect the drivers to take more care over their health and safety than they do themselves "

Yes. That's it exactly. They know you aren't going to hit them so the take the piss. Why? What is the point?

deaddei · 01/09/2009 12:27

YANBU.It's teenagers who don't check there's a car coming, have their ipod in, chatting to friends..who really annoy me. They have no idea how to cross a road safely- probably always have been driven to school or never let out on their own. They need some road safety lessons! We live near a big secondary school, and I have been known to get out of my car and bollock them for what is dangerous behaviour- shoving each other into a main road. And I've been in the school too.
If I cross a road, not at a crossing, I think it is common courtesy to drivers to do it quickly.

SomeGuy · 01/09/2009 12:33

I know what the poster means - if I'm turning right off a busy road into a side road and there's people crossing the side road and taking their time it is very dangerous for me to be sitting with the arse of my car hanging out onto a major A road.

But they have 100% priority. They are allowed to take their time. This is quite different from people playing chicken with traffic.

I don't understand how it is so dangerous either.

If you are turning right, you signal, then you slow down (to a stop if there is traffic/pedestrians in the way) in the lane, unless there is a separate lane for turning right.

Traffic behind you will have seen you signalling and slowing down. I can't ever see how your car's backside can be 'hanging out' - you just block the lane for traffic behind you until it is safe to turn.

I also can't stand pedestrians that think you have magic, instant brakes and decide to run out onto a zebra with no notice and without waiting to see if you can stop.

To be fair, it is fairly predictable that pedestrians approaching a zebra crossing are likely to cross. I always watch the pavement near crossings to see if there is anyone who might be about to cross and slow down if there is - they might turn out not to cross, but you do have to be able to stop, they do have right of way.

TsarChasm · 01/09/2009 12:35

I saw some yound lads deliberately playing chicken in the road the other day. They were being totally stupid and yet I assume the law would still expect anyone driving not to hit them even if that meant stopping for them and them thinking it was all a great laugh.

SouthMum · 01/09/2009 12:45

YANBU - I speed up when this happens and then its a case of "who is going to give up first"

Usually its the ped

Nancy66 · 01/09/2009 12:46

someguy - do you live in St Mary Mead or something? In London on a busy road if you have to turn right against on coming traffic you just have to go when you can. If you waited for a huge gap in traffic you'd be sat there all day. Plus (on the road I have in mind) the traffic behind me can't get by until I make my turn - and after about 30 seconds they are liable to start beeping and shouting abuse. the people might have right of way but you'd think they might just keep a bloody speed on when they see a car approaching.

A pedestrian at a zebra crossing has to make sure the traffic has come to a stop before attempting to cross - they're not meant to just leap out in front of a car that is already level with the crossing.

StripeyKnickersSpottySocks · 01/09/2009 12:49

Wait for the day when you do this to some annoying person who then decides to drag you out your car and give you a beating.

LastTrainToNowhere · 01/09/2009 12:58

This is such a depressing thread. I read the OP and thought OMG, but then other posters came up with even worse attitudes...scaring pedestrians by horning, driving close up to them. Let's face it, all these tactics are meant to intimidate, no? Then how can any any anything excuse it?

Yes, teenagers sauntering across the road are annoying, but drivers who think they own the road are even more annoying, and dangerous to boot. FGS, weren't any of you lot ever teenagers yourselves? Don't you have children who are teenagers or will be teenagers some day?

I'm depressed beyond measure now. I can't believe mothers would have these vile attitudes.

deaddei · 01/09/2009 13:05

Yes I have a (pre)teenager, and I would be appalled if her lack of road sense meant she was a danger to herself and others.

KateMess · 01/09/2009 13:06

Any behaviour that winds people up in this world (and yes, people do walk deliberately slowly in front of cars) is out of order. We should all do what we can to make the world as nice a place as possible. It's very hot today (at least here) so it sounds a generous-hearted consequence. And there's some detergent in there too, isn't there? Can't do any harm.

Just don't tut, that's all I ask.

IUsedToBePeachy · 01/09/2009 13:11

'I wind down the window and shout THANK YOU at people who don't acknowledge that you have stopped for them
'

hope you have better hearingt han the bloke who did that to me, becuase I did say it just was wrestling ds's at the time and didn't make eye contact.

Right royally pissed me off, his 4 minute lecture about rudeness, then a door slammed in face when I protested my innocence.

And OP- yep YABU. Spoilt behaviour. Esp. as windscreen wash can be quite horrible to many people with sensitivites.

TsarChasm · 01/09/2009 13:14

Just to put over another side. Not a pedestrian but a cyclist my dad knew.

He was being bullied dangerously by a car driver. They eventually both stopped at a junction. The cyclist leaned into the car took the keys and threw them in a hedge.

duchesse · 01/09/2009 13:18

Op, you're not doing people a favour by not running them down, merely obeying both criminal law, traffic regulations and basic common sense. Do you drive a high horse? Get over yourself and start behaving like the grown up you are supposed to be if they trusted you enough to grant you a license. And stop-press: teenagers trying to look cool ? Unheard of...

TheDMshouldbeRivened · 01/09/2009 13:18

'someguy - do you live in St Mary Mead or something? In London on a busy road if you have to turn right against on coming traffic you just have to go when you can. If you waited for a huge gap in traffic you'd be sat there all day. Plus (on the road I have in mind) the traffic behind me can't get by until I make my turn - and after about 30 seconds they are liable to start beeping and shouting abuse. the people might have right of way but you'd think they might just keep a bloody speed on when they see a car approaching.'

But they still have right of way as pedestrians.
There's too much bloody traffic.

LastTrainToNowhere · 01/09/2009 13:21

And scaring her is the right way to teach her road sense, is it?

No driver knows how good his brakes are. So yes, it is wrong for pedestrians to force them to test it, but equally wrong (if not more so) for drivers to brake close to a pedestrian.

TsarChasm · 01/09/2009 13:27

'And stop-press: teenagers trying to look cool ? Unheard of... ' Exactly! Teenagers do daft annoying things. You have to be the adult not twice as daft joining in.

Tabithacat · 01/09/2009 13:35

Good God - all those who use a car to intimidate should be shot/locked up/have their licence taken away

So, which of you lot, were the ones who overtake really close to a moped and then swerve in, pushing the moped into the side of the road? This has happened so many times to me and mine - all because, oh, we're not going fast enough.

Doesn't matter what the provocation - you are in charge of a lethal weapon, you should show the restraint.

Awful thread, would ask for it to be removed, but have now found out who all the idiots are who drive dangerously just because they can't be arsed to have any patience.

morningpaper · 01/09/2009 13:38

Pedestrians never do this to me

You are all weird and imagining things

Original poster
BosomForAPillow · 01/09/2009 13:44

Aaaaaaargh!

(I am the OP.)

I never said I speed up/drive close to these pedestrians to scare them. They are forcing me to slam on brakes to avoid them...I squirt a bit of screen wash to show them that they have crossed stupidly. I'm not talking about turning into a road or doing it at a crossing.

I think I get the message that most of you think it's unreasonable...but I think quite a lot of those have never experienced this type of pedestrian!

OP posts: