Pay Attention While Driving, Walking or Cycling

I wished that people would pay more attention out there on the road and follow traffic rules.  This applies to drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists.  Don’t be out here talking on the phone, texting or checking your Facebook status when you are supposed to be paying attention.  All it takes is for someone to have their eyes off the road for a few seconds to cause a major accident. 

Just as drivers of motor vehicles have rules that they must follow, pedestrians and bicyclists have rules that they must abide by as well. I see people mindlessly step off the curb all the time without looking both ways.  Why? Because they are busy running their mouths on the phone.  I see people get off county transit buses and start to jay walk in the middle of the road and risking their safety.  Why? Because they are listening to music on their headphones and think that drivers will automatically yield for them. 

I can’t understand what the urgency is with texting and smartphone use.  I would think that a person’s safety and health is a priority over any phone activities. Even eating and drinking can be a distraction while driving. I remember hearing a story about a woman crashed her car because she was shaving her pussy while driving. According to a statistic that I read a distracted.gov, 3154 people were killed in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted drivers and 424,000 people were injured. 

People down in Florida drive crazy, especially in Miami on I-95.  You have to drive for yourself and always anticipate that the drivers all around you are idiots.  Think about the possible mind state and physical health of the people who are operating motor vehicles.  There are people who are driving under the influence, driving without valid license or insurance, driving while distracted, driving with medical issues and vision problems, etc.  There are drivers who wouldn’t think twice about leaving the scene of an accident with injury or a death (hit-and-run).  So, if you are not vigilant you are putting your life in someone else’s hands and just hoping that they will do the right thing. 

And people have no courtesy when driving.  I had this jackass driving a U-Haul truck to make and illegal left turn right in front of me and he was trying to maneuver the truck while talking on a cellphone.  Then, he ended up obstructing the flow of traffic.  Azzhole!

A few years ago, I was driving down a road and this man was riding his bike.  He started to ride his bike in front of my car right across the street, perpendicular about a few hundred feet away.  He didn’t cross it in the way that he was supposed to at either a stop light or an intersection with stop signs.  Then, when my car was about 20 feet away from him he decided to suddenly spin back around in the direction that he came from on my side of the street. 

I had to slam on my breaks and swerve in order to avoid hitting him.  I almost ran into a stop sign. And he was completely oblivious to what was going on.  He was so shocked that the only thing he could do was sit there like a deer caught in headlights.  If I wasn’t paying attention, then he would have been road kill. 

All of this happened because he was busy chit-chatting on the phone.  Not only did he put his own life in danger, he put my safety and property at risk.  He didn’t even bother to apologize or own up to his wrong doing.  The messed up part about it is that he continued to ride his bike and talk on the phone as if nothing happened!  If I hit him, and if he were to try and sue, he probably would lose a lawsuit because of his own contributory negligence.  And where are the cops when you really need them?  He should have gotten some sort of citation.