I'll admit it. I'm turning into a bit of a curmudgeon. Urban life annoys me: not the interesting architecture, or easy access to just about anything under the sun, or the wide variety of people and sub cultures I run into everyday. What annoys me about urban life is that there are sooo many people, and not all of them are very bright. I have pet peeves, as I get older I have more - I swear, I am going to end up being the crazy old lady on the corner ranting at people that walked by that it wasn't how we did it in our day - oh no, when we walked, we put effort into it!
Wait - that is already me. Tampa is not exactly a pedestrian friendly city. And the thought of trying to get anywhere on a bike here pretty much terrifies me. The last City I lived in was Portland, Oregon. Very bike friendly, lots of public transports, and people walked enough to understand that there are rules. Rules that support important things, like staying alive, and not messing up the lives of the poor sap that hits you with their car. Maybe because as a country kid, I learned about urban walking in 3rd grade safety courses. The people here learn it from the neighborhood, parents and peers. The result is chaos.
Take for example: the cross walk. You need to cross the street, you go to the nearest cross walk, maybe push a button, wait for the light to change to indicate that it is safe to cross, try not to be freaked out by the flashing orange hand counting the seconds to your demise. You make it across the street, with mere seconds to spare. During the whole process you are in front of the cars, in full view, where all the drivers can see you. If you don't quite make it, chances are the annoyed driver may gesture at you for wasting their time, but they will most likely NOT run over you with their car. Tampa does not have very strategic cross walks, on some busy streets the cross walks are separated by several very long blocks. In those cases, you should at least go to an intersection, wait for a natural slow or stop in traffic, and run like hell - please do not do this with toddlers and baby strollers - play "chicken" with your own life, don't drag your kids along. Buy them the video game - it is WAY cheaper.
I am not a purist, I have been known to J-walk, just not at rush-hour an a main through fare. So my pedestrian peeve? People that don't use the freakin' cross walk. I'm sitting in my car, 2nd car from the light, on a very busy street (3 lanes, each way, double or triple turn lane). Probably talking on the phone and eating a sandwich - not texting - I'm not quite that stupid. I am two car lengths from the light, and some idiot, dragging their girlfriend, groceries or very short child, starts weaving in and about between the cars. When the light changes, people start to move. They almost get hit, or get stuck between lanes or make a mad dash in front of braking cars. You are 10 feet from the CrossWalk! what is wrong with these people? How lazy can you be? How illegal is it to hit them? It really burns me when they then turn and walk towards the cross walk. If you were going that way anyway, lazy is obviously not the problem. It is just pure stupid.
On a similar note, some guy on a bike needed to cross the street, and head East yesterday (I was going West). He gets 1/2 way across the street, turns into oncoming traffic, and starts slaloming between cars, against the flow of traffic, making his way across the street. Then he flips off the car that almost hit him when the light changed. The rules for bicyclist in Tampa is different than other parts of the country. If you are on the street, you follow the laws of a moving vehicle, if you are on the sidewalk, you are treated as a pedestrian. This is true, and it might be statewide. Anyone coming from a city where people ride bikes regularly are very confused by this random behavior. Bicycles will come at your from any direction, at any speed. It is your job to not hit them, even if they come sailing at top speed down the side walk, against the flow of traffic, shielded by a very large hedge.
Hmmmm - maybe I need to chill, I should go take a walk or something.
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