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Something Americans don’t know about is that streets were shared spaces between pedestrians, cars, bikes, everything. Then cars got a bigger role and pushed everyone else to sidewalks. Then bars and restaurants also wanted part of that space for outdoor serving. Now pedestrians, bikes, bars/restaurants, bus stops, e-scooters and parking spaces, advertising signs, and trees share the side walk, which in turn has become much more narrow because of car lanes…
I mean, say what you will about cars but the sidewalk is a dedicated lane for pedestrians. Walk on the street, fuck around and find out.
Plus if you’re walking in the road walk against the flow of cars not with. That way if a drunk driver (or just general asshole) comes swerving down the road you can see it and react.
my dad always said: walk facing toward traffic, and make eye contact with drivers, so they can be haunted by your face for the rest of their lives if they run you over.
Or you could just use the sidewalk?
A lot of the places I lived growing up didn’t have sidewalks.
Rural roads man.
90% of the streets in my neighborhood don’t have sidewalks and I live in a major city. Exactly half of one side of my block has a sidewalk
Unfortunately, you probably live in a formerly red lined area. This is a vestige of the past institutional racism from your city. But setting that aside, I was referring to the actual sidewalk present in the photo
One example: 47°42’58.8"N 122°18’21.3"W
no, it’s not redlining, these are the neighborhoods redlining was keeping black people out of.
cute attempt at whatever that was tho.
Nope
I’m aware, but in this exact picture, there is a sidewalk.
We don’t have sidewalks in my community. Kids play in the streets and people are out walking on them all the time. Pushing strollers, walking their dogs, etc. The real difference is everyone is respectful. Cars drive slow and slow down more to go by giving extra space. Folks on the road move over and let the car go by. Kids collect up and move out of the way. A lot of the folks walking their dogs will step into the grass and wait. Everyone waves at each other. It’s like having a nice little community of friends that I never have to actually talk to. After living here for almost two years I strongly believe that I could stop and ask for help from any of them and I’d do the same. Kind of crazy reflecting on being that I’ve only ever talked to a few people, one of which only because she does crossing guard duties for the school crosswalk I take my son to in the golf cart.
If they’re gonna walk in the street, I guess I’ll drive on the sidewalk. 🤷🏻♂️
All for reducing or eliminating cars; but I’m not going to act like this ain’t fucking stupid.
But there is a sidewalk. I’m also wondering why these people are walking on the street
Posts like this are part of the reason why the rest of us don’t take you people seriously.
Closely related to, “I abuse animals because a vegan was mean to me once.”
I get this sentiment but cars will kill you.
I don’t care about whatever argument you have about the existence of cars, stay out of their way.
You might have the right of way, you might have the law on your side, you might fully well be in the right but.
The car wins. You either die or end up with permanent lifelong injuries.
Keep yourself safe above all. Bitch all you want but don’t deliberately put yourself at risk to “prove a point” you’ll just die or get fucked up for no reason other than pride.
Walking on them is literally the entire purpose of sidewalks. I mean its right there in the name. This picture is exactly why - so they’re safe from cars and don’t obstruct drivers. Your opinion of cars is completely immaterial when determining who is being reasonable in this context.
I don’t disagree with you on a rational level, but on a human level, it just sometimes feels nice to walk a different route, to not be forced to walk in exactly a straight line, especially with a ridiculously narrow sidewalk like that.
And that’s then where the opinion of cars comes in. I’m not supposed to do what I feel like, because some guy with a car decides to head on through. If I think cars are vital to humanity, I’ll gladly do the rational thing. If I think cars are killing humanity, then sincerely fuck that noise.
Holy Entitlement.
“Yeah, there’s this whole path for pedestrians, and that whole path for cars, but sometimes I just want to be on the car one for no reason, so cars should be inconvenienced for that.”
TBH I think that the demeanor of „why can’t I have 80% public city land for me“ sounds way more like entitlement for me. That is for me the reason why I found the original post so interesting.
Are you really trying to sound like the sidewalk and the street are equal? The car has enough space for 4 of it to be side by side. The pedestrian has enough space for 2 of them to be side by side, touching. You sound entitled to me.
So maybe we need bigger sidewalks. Fair enough, that’s a reasonable discussion. Taking over the entire road is not.
Man the fucking moment a pedestrian steps onto the street they live on it’s “taking over the entire road” but roadside parking on both sides is normal. Fuck off.
From a safety perspective, pedestrians in a road is already a huge issue.
Like, the area should be changed. I totally agree with the idea of vastly increasing DESIGNATED pedestrian space.
But for this driver on this day, they are using the infrastructure as designated. The street pedestrians are not, and are putting themselves at risk in the current system. A driver not wanting a high risk pass with a pedestrian, while a sidewalk exists in the current system is not entitled.
It’s the same as if someone was uphill hiking on a designated downhill mountain bike ONLY trail. It isn’t wrong for the cyclist in that equation to be mad if they come across a hiker on a non shared trail.
I’m excited for the day I’m coming home from work at night, coming over a hill I can’t see over, and then BOOM a human is in the middle of the road and I run someone over, because they “deserve to use the road as a pedestrian”
Cool. I’ll tell that to my therapist for the rest of my life while I try and cope with the fact that I’ve ended a life.
It’s one thing for someone to walk down the street and put themselves at risk.
It’s an entirely different deal to force an unsuspecting person into a dangerous situation. That’s fucking selfish.
Do you have any idea how often pedestrians are inconvenienced by cars? We have to beg to cross streets and only where it is designated, busniesses are farther away and hidden behind vast parking lots, we are subject to their exhaust noise and fumes just about everywhere, and in many places we neglect nearly every form of travel that isnt a car.
It isn’t like the car can’t still get down the road, they just have to do it at a safe speed and be aware of the pedestrians. This is a neighbourhood not a highway.
These people aren’t crossing the road, they’re walking along it.
The post that finally got me to block this batshit crazy community
Im glad to help.
People from Bakersfield walk on the street, all over. Once you get used to it though it’s really not that difficult to live with. I imagine if people still used roads for walking like before cars, we could figure it out.
There are so many worse things about Bakersfield, this doesn’t even rank.
Hay man, one of the lowest costs of living and average income ratios in the county. Also people get all ‘‘oh no’’ about crime rates, but it’s really not significant for people who go to bed at 9pm to 10pm and aren’t actively entrepreneurs of the night in any capacity. A lot of crime is criminal on criminal.
We need a “fuck pedestrians” instance for this one guys
