A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!
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In the absence of a flair system on lemmy yet, let’s try to make it easier to scan through posts by type in here by using tags:
I used to see this all the time in the UK outside high street fast food shops. Some idiot would just stop in the middle of the road, chuck their hazards on and piss off into KFC to gorge themselves on chicken for half an hour while traffic banedk up behind their car. British people love a queue though so I guess everyone was winning ..
Chicken an a can Coke?
Half of the problems people have with cars would be solved if humans could be a scintilla more aware of others.
But that will never happen so outlaw cars.
Scintillating is uncommonly used but does appear occasionally in things I've read but I didn't know the latin root or connect it when I saw the noun used by Op, so thanks for the link and chance to learn!
Cars sort of create that problem because the mode of transportation separates people in boxes, where we can't hear or see each other. All other drivers are idiots, right?
Compare this frame of mind to the Dutch bicycle intersection where both directions are green at the same time.
Or the famous Shibuya pedestrian crossing.
These get soo many more people from one side to the other than cars can ever achieve.
Even if people where nicer in traffic, cars can not navigate this fluidly. They're simply too big and drivers can't adjust speed and direction fast enough to do it even if they had the space.
Aware? Oh they are, they behave this way in spite of it.
What they are missing is empathy and logic. Empathy, so they understand what burden they put onto others with their antisocial behavior. Logic so they understand that if we want positive effects for all in general, it just makes sense not to behave like an ass.
I see this constantly during the week (remote worker) when I walk my dogs. It’ll be Tuesday afternoon with unlimited street parking and everyone on the planet suddenly needs to stop abruptly right in the middle of the fucking road.
I'd celebrate it as impromptu traffic calming if they weren't in the middle of the bike lane.
Door dashers and Uber eats are the worst in my experience.
Total disregard for any traffic rules, they just straight up park their cars in the middle of a lane outside of the restaurant and leave their cars sitting there while they go inside.
Food delivery gig services are an absolute blight and should be completely illegal imo.
We have an obesity problem and this is making it worse.
I love the people who pull into a normal ass parallel parking spot and put on their flashers.
One, you can just stop or park there. It’s fine.
Two, now it looks to everyone on the road that you’re signaling left to pull into the road because the parked car behind you blocks the view of the right flasher.
There even is a whole community about exposing people who park without using that button, check out !youcantparktheremate@feddit.uk.
20 minutes ago I passed an access-a-ride mini bus (Run by the public transit agency) parked in the curb bike lane with it's blinkers on in front of an apartment building. A building with over 40 units, an open air parking lot, and a lavish back driveway with full entry on the opposite side of the block. It would have been far more convenient for the bus driver, the person being picked up, and every endangered passing cyclist and driver for them to pick up their passenger in the designated passenger pickup area but no, there is a bike lane that isn't yet being blocked and so that is where the bus must be.
I wanted to cut the bus driver some slack and complain that municipalities don't do enough to provide loading / unloading curb cuts but I can't even do that when there's a huge-ass driveway taking up a third of the property already and they're not even using it.
Lol I literally remarked about that earlier in another thread, but now we can really rant.
Is this fairly universal in all cities? Here in LA it's almost every block on the westside but less so elsewhere. Visiting people in Santa Monica I even ran into two double parkers across from each other and couldn't even pass. Lol
I hardly see this over here in India.
On an unrelated note, did you know, most 1 lane roads here are secretly 2 lane roads?
Lol, indeed-- the 2 lane 1 lane road certainly exists elsewhere, as I've seen in Japan side streets.
But as my old Indian roommate mentioned to me once, red lights also don't always mean stop there either, lol
red lights also don’t always mean stop there either, lol
Depends quite a bit on the city. Some are much stricter, which coincidentally also happen to be better places for road cycling.
I’ve seen in Japan side streets
There too?
Well, I guess nowhere is safe.
I live in the Midwest, and it's fucking pandemic
Yup, fuckass delivery drivers blocking the road all day and the meter maids don't do shit, but I park half an inch into the yellow outside my own fucking house and this guy will make sure I get a new ticket every six hours on the dot because that's how often he's allowed to write them.
Downtown Philly in the middle of traffic lanes
Mostly uber eats/Doordash etc drivers but really anybody
Absolutely rampant
Driving in Philly is already enough of an ordeal without people doing this.
Nope that's the " I'm helping a fucking turtle cross the road cause a bunch of fuckin cunts try to hit them for fuckin giggles" button, so far it works great.
I can confirm it happens the same in Italy.
If someone parks illegally it should become public property. It's yours now. Do what you want to it.
As long as we can apply this rule equally to things like lime scooters, I'm in.
You pay for the damages too then go for it
My stupid ass city let's morons park in bike lanes as long as they have that little light flickering there. It's like a cheat code.
Spit on the car as you roll by. They'll learn.
Some scumbags in my town apparently think that "FIRE ZONE" means "entitled asshole parking" in French.
I hate the other side of this too. People will park outside my house at 11pm on a residential side street and turn the flashes on, interrupting my nice peaceful reading session at the window.
like, there's no need to turn them. just fucking don't press the button. you're parked on the side of the street just like every other fucking car here, and your lights are already on. you don't need to be annoying.
I mean, these are ment to imply that you have become a hazard and stopping in the middle of the road do be pretty hazardous.
Legitimate reasons to use it imo is If you're gonna be stopped for less then a minute on the side of a road, otherwise find a park, if you need to stop and not somewhere you can park, get as far off the road as you can (ie shoulder of a freeway) or if you actually are in an emergency and need to stop, e.g. you're car is suddenly externally combusting
I've only used them when my car needs to be pushed off the road. If your car moves, you should move it.
Saw this when travelling in Greece for the first time. As a pedestrian I thought it was a funny cultural quirk. I've never come across it on Canada's W. Coast.
It's quite common in Montréal. People do this even when there's a parking 3 meters away. Delivery drivers are the worst offender. It fucking pisses my off.
North Americans don't know what hazard lights are for, it's not taught in driving schools and no one uses them properly.
It's not only north Americans, I've seen them in EU too
actually; that's the thank you button
Who's out here taking pictures of my father-in-law?!
I thought those were the alert for the parking warden to come and see of you need a ticket for your illegal parking.
parking warden
In USA we just have gestapo agents.
It is for me
Meh.
At least they're using their hazards. Most car brains don't even bother.
Also I don't really mind cars blocking traffic if they're using hazards. It's usually safer for bikers and pedestrians.
This.
It infuriates me when people just stop on a side road or in a parking lot lane with no indicators.
On a side street (barely two lanes but street parking is allowed) I frequent, people will just slow down and come to a stop without any indicators. I stay behind them and eventually they will roll their window down and wave me by, but they could have just indicated they are pulling off but staying on the road with a blinker...
Just today I was waiting to reverse out of a parking spot and a person just stopped in the lane 10 ft away. I waited for a minute because I wasn't sure what they were doing. They eventually got out and opened the boot of their vehicle and after another minute of that I eventually reversed and pulled away. They should have put on their hazards from the beginning... Very frustrating.