Topic: Being Courteous isn't Easy

[RunsinLight]

My newest beef.

I am a relatively courteous person on the road. The problem have is when you try and do this so another car can go you practically have to floor the horn, flash your flights, wave your arms. Go for sake.

What on earth do some people need

[airbalancer]

I rather have people follow the rules of road

The person should go when their suppose to
 

[Leviathan]

Go for sake.

[RunsinLight]

Today it was in a parking lot. I really couldn't go anywhere because there was already a car trying to turn ahead of me. So I stop rather then blocking the intersection of the parking row and the roadway of the parking lot. The person sits and sits, I start waving. Person sits and sits

[CatsEye68]

I rather have people follow the rules of road

The person should go when their suppose to

Indeed. I am convinced misplaced "courtesy" causes a large percentage of accidents.

[UmroAyyar]

Roadway courtesy is a judgment call.

If your act of courtesy will result in smoother flow of traffic. All is well.

Try to be courteous with people you have been with already on the road, you get to see and understand their behaviour a bit.

[aaronk]

Roadway courtesy is a judgment call.

If your act of courtesy will result in smoother flow of traffic. All is well.

Try to be courteous with people you have been with already on the road, you get to see and understand their behaviour a bit.

I dunno, I've seen my own courtesy fail quite a few times. Sometimes in slow-moving urban traffic I'll let a car out who is signalling and trying to merge into traffic from an entry on the right-hand side, only to find he wants to get across 3 lanes. Because I stopped and waited, and the other lanes beside me don't necessarily feel the same need to be courteous, I've now blocked my entire lane and there is no near end in sight as the next lanes just keep moving. The car pulling out should occupy only the first lane and slowly move over to the lane they want, but that would make far too much sense.

Worse yet, I was in traffic one day and each direction of traffic had two lanes with one turning lane in the middle (5 total) and I was traveling slowly in the right-most lane. There was a car who had obviously been waiting a long time and traffic in front of me was slowing, so I stopped to let her out, as did the car beside me in the lane to my left. But as she moved out she didn't look and hit a car that was *driving* along the turning lane in the middle of the road. I'm not sure who would be at fault in this situation as the car pulling out didn't look, but the other car was driving in a turn lane at 60. Either way, that lady had a bad day - the accident was minimal and everybody was fine, but I felt kinda bad, even though I was just trying to be courteous. Had I just ignored her and blocked her in, perhaps she wouldn't have gotten shmucked. In the end I don't blame myself because really I was just allowing space for her to move out - the other driver was ultimately responsible for her vehicle. It's just unfortunate. Now, while I'm still courteous on the road, I try to calculate as closely as possible what the other person is going to do before I give them room to do it.

[UmroAyyar]

Roadway courtesy is a judgment call.

If your act of courtesy will result in smoother flow of traffic. All is well.

Try to be courteous with people you have been with already on the road, you get to see and understand their behaviour a bit.

I dunno, I've seen my own courtesy fail quite a few times.

Now, while I'm still courteous on the road, I try to calculate as closely as possible what the other person is going to do before I give them room to do it.

Aaron, this is what I was trying to say. 

[DKaz]

There are common rules of courtesy many drivers observe. If a car is pulling out of a parking spot or driveway, you let them in IF IT'S SAFE TO DO SO... aka when you're stopped at a red light and then traffic is starting to go. Most drivers do pull out but if they aren't paying attention and look like they're not going to go, then I'm going to go. What's not safe is suddenly stopping for no reason*.

Also, most people here let one vehicle merge in on a freeway. 99% of the people around here do this... it doesn't slow down the flow of traffic on the freeway by much and people can actually get onto the freeway. This is provided that they are merging in at the same speed as freeway traffic (whether 18km/h or 80km/h), some drivers merging in are stupid (or maybe just don't know about what could be a common courtesy rule only known in Vancouver) and just come to a dead stop on the on ramp, some think they can butt in with the car in front of them forcing a freeway car to let two merge in, but overall this is how it goes in Vancouver.

I put a * because of pedestrians. When I see a car stopped at an unsignalized intersection, even if not officially marked as a crosswalk, legally pedestrians are allowed to cross at any intersection so I will NEVER overtake a vehicle stopped at an intersection at full speed. I always slow down to about 20km/h, see if there are pedestrians crossing or if the driver is just being a douche and not signalling a left/right turn, then proceed. If I am stopped at a crosswalk to let a pedestrian cross and see in my rearview mirror that there is a car who's not about to stop, I will beep my horn to alert the pedestrian of the incoming danger.

[toolatecrew]

I put a * because of pedestrians. When I see a car stopped at an unsignalized intersection, even if not officially marked as a crosswalk, legally pedestrians are allowed to cross at any intersection so I will NEVER overtake a vehicle stopped at an intersection at full speed. I always slow down to about 20km/h, see if there are pedestrians crossing or if the driver is just being a douche and not signalling a left/right turn, then proceed. If I am stopped at a crosswalk to let a pedestrian cross and see in my rearview mirror that there is a car who's not about to stop, I will beep my horn to alert the pedestrian of the incoming danger.

I wanted to follow up opn this becuase "driver courtesy" to pedestrians recently caused me to be in an accident and I see near accidents all the time becuase of it.

Yes at an intersection you need to stop for pedesrtians if they are indicating they want to cross or are in the process of doing so.

But what happened was that two pedestrians were standing on the sidewalk in front of a pub. There is a parking lot across the roada 2 lane 50 kph zone. There is a crosswalk not 50 feet from where they were standing. Rather than walking to the corsswalk they chose to satnd on the sidewalk and see if they could cross from where they were.

Now they didn't walk inot the road or even sick out their arm. But some idiot decides to slam on his brakes and let them cross. I was able to stop. The two behind me were not.

First the guy was an idiot for stopping. Second the pedestrians were idiots for being too effn lazy to walk less lan fifty 50 to a clearly marked crosswalk where everyone would have been required to stop. Heck it was a nice sunny relativley warm day. it wasn't like they were rushing duer to the weather.

i see it all the time. Being within sight of a crosswalk but being too lazy to use it. Don't stop for these people (unless you need to becuase they are in the road). Keep driving until they get fed up and walk their lazy azz to the corsswalk.

[DKaz]

That's a matter of drivers not stopping at all for jaywalkers unless it's a known jaywalking stretch of road (Robson St. in Vancouver), and jaywalkers using their own etiquette. Jaywalking should only be done when there's a good break in traffic, one shouldn't even signal their attempt to cross the street otherwise.

[safristi]

..the new lower Hood and Bumper cars will safely deposit these Jay Birds on the curbside with nary a bruise or a what U will....even when hitting them @ 60KPH......give it a try................prove the Manufacture'rs RIGHT................................waving to pedestrian...C'mon dear give it a GO...........

[aaronk]

I put a * because of pedestrians. When I see a car stopped at an unsignalized intersection, even if not officially marked as a crosswalk, legally pedestrians are allowed to cross at any intersection so I will NEVER overtake a vehicle stopped at an intersection at full speed. I always slow down to about 20km/h, see if there are pedestrians crossing or if the driver is just being a douche and not signalling a left/right turn, then proceed. If I am stopped at a crosswalk to let a pedestrian cross and see in my rearview mirror that there is a car who's not about to stop, I will beep my horn to alert the pedestrian of the incoming danger.

I wanted to follow up opn this becuase "driver courtesy" to pedestrians recently caused me to be in an accident and I see near accidents all the time becuase of it.

Yes at an intersection you need to stop for pedesrtians if they are indicating they want to cross or are in the process of doing so.

But what happened was that two pedestrians were standing on the sidewalk in front of a pub. There is a parking lot across the roada 2 lane 50 kph zone. There is a crosswalk not 50 feet from where they were standing. Rather than walking to the corsswalk they chose to satnd on the sidewalk and see if they could cross from where they were.

Now they didn't walk inot the road or even sick out their arm. But some idiot decides to slam on his brakes and let them cross. I was able to stop. The two behind me were not.

First the guy was an idiot for stopping. Second the pedestrians were idiots for being too effn lazy to walk less lan fifty 50 to a clearly marked crosswalk where everyone would have been required to stop. Heck it was a nice sunny relativley warm day. it wasn't like they were rushing duer to the weather.

i see it all the time. Being within sight of a crosswalk but being too lazy to use it. Don't stop for these people (unless you need to becuase they are in the road). Keep driving until they get fed up and walk their lazy azz to the corsswalk.

Truly, that is the driver's fault for not allowing enough room to safely stop and that's what the insurance company will tell them. I believe the Canadian driver's handbook says 2 seconds - it seems commonly accepted that we can follow each other at about 10 feet. You never know what will pop out in front of the car in front of you or what they will do on the road - who knows, a kid could lose his soccer ball and chase it into the street. Cars behind need to be prepared for 'what if' and not just assume everything will move smoothly.

In the case you pointed out, the pedestrians were illegally J-walking, but you can typically expect that some people might have poorer decision-making abilities when exiting a pub.

[quadzilla]

i see it all the time. Being within sight of a crosswalk but being too lazy to use it. Don't stop for these people (unless you need to becuase they are in the road). Keep driving until they get fed up and walk their lazy azz to the corsswalk.

Or worse yet....at the St Lawrence Market (Toronto) they created an extra cross walk only 20 meters from the corner and have a copper stopping traffic so people can get across there even when the traffic light is green!

Blue line is corner
Red line is added (unmarked) cross walk.

[stodge]

I try to be courteous when driving but sometimes it backfires - car leaving gas station who ends up wanting to cross multiple lanes. Or even worse, if I try to let someone out and they sit and stare or don't even look in my direction, but I don't notice until I give up waving my arms like a lunatic and pass them. Doh!

[link2009]

The problem is that not being courteous has no advantages...you're not doing much by honking the horn or flashing your high beams.

[safristi]

....well yesterday HONKING MY HORN stopped some inattentive(partially deaf?) fellow backing out of his parking space and into the Ranger as i slowly went down the parking lot................finally the dweeb stopped 3 inches from me after 4 HARD BLASTS........next time I'll flash my lights too........... ....................there's non so blind who will not see..............

[Ice]

Sometimes people are just special. I was at a 4 way intersection with lights and the traffic was jammed up all over the place. So when I approached the light it had been green for a while and the car infront of me was just across the intersection. I stopped... it was green yes but if I went further I would be blocking the traffic across the intersection when the light turned. Well the person behind me went ballistic... like seriously crazy. Flashing lights... honking horn... It was so badly jammed that the person ahead of me was still just across the intersection when the light turned green again.

*sigh*