The Dashcam Chronicles

[Squiggy]

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6NG2RT0qR8[/yt]

 

[ITL]

Yep, that about sums it up.

 

[Squiggy]

Something almost happened, and the OP has a filthy mouth.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I was able to salvage the video from today after all. This one should be sufficiently "out of the ordinary" for you. The woman nearly hits the pedestrians because she won't yield to their right of way, and then nearly hits me when she go wide into my lane. Both driver and passenger just looked at me, perplexed. Had this ended up in an accident (luckily I was yielding to the peds myself so I didn't start turning as soon as I might have) the video would have proved very useful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3USNrRWxFc

She was wrong to turn while the crosswalk in front of the lane she intended to turn into was still in use by the pedestrians. She was wrong to swing wide into your lane. But you were also wrong to rush to make the turn when by all appearances it looks like you knew full well what was happening.

It comes off like you rushed to make the turn to make a point. Being a good driver doesn't just mean following the law yourself, it also means taking into account other driver's mistakes and violations and not plowing ahead with a legal turn if it's dangerous, even if you have the right of way.

Maybe you didn't know what was going to happen there; I don't know. But as I watched the video, it seemed pretty obvious to me that the van wasn't going to wait, and that it was going to turn wide before you even reached the intersection. I would have just waited for her to complete her turn before turning right myself.

What if she had seen you coming and suddenly swerved left to avoid an accident? Those pedestrians hadn't even crossed the middle of the road yet, and could easily have been hit. Again, I'm not absolving her of her responsibility, since she was way more in the wrong and you had the right of way, but it was still wrong of you to be so impatient or eager to prove a point yourself.

Honestly, it smacks of the vehicular version of those people who get a gun in the hopes of facing a confrontation where they'll need to use it. You seem to want something to happen on camera, so you act impulsively and rush into situations where a little patience would make it a nothing incident. You said most of the people with these videos come off as aggressive, and I see little difference here. You drive offensively, you use the horn to signal your displeasure instead of just to avoid accidents, and you seem unnecessarily angry at other drivers and pedestrians.

 

[Roshi]

On many occasions, a driver's reaction is "I YIELD FOR NOBODY!!1!"

 

[Tiberius Jim]

This is unbelievable. So now my driving is critiqued and hypothetical situations are being made up where I'm the one at fault. First of all...did you see an accident in that video? Maybe that would have been more exciting for all of you, but the fact is that no, no accident happened. I guess that was just a happy coincidence then and not due to anything on my part. I honked because the woman (yes I saw that she was a woman) crossed into my lane for no reason. I *did* slow down to make sure I did my part to let the pedestrians clear my path. I then proceeded because every other time I've turned at that intersection nobody else has been careless enough to turn I to the wrong lane. But like I said...I still avoided the accident. But sure, go ahead and play armchair psychiatrists from a 15 second video. I mean..."General roles"? Seriously? Its called "windows" and I can see through them and identify the people in the cars.

And somehow it comes off as petty for me to make these videos but somehow its funny to take the time to film yourself watching my video....

Someone said it earlier...I do the same thing multiple times expecting different results. And that thing is posting here expecting a civil discussion when all I've gotten in the past is ridicule and people who think they're Dr. Freud analyzing me. I've honestly never posted at a forum where I've encountered so many people who act like that.

 

[Avon]

in the video where its a green light and a guy walks across in front of you, you totally should've run him over because you had the right of way.

and the two wrongs one, you should've rammed into the side of the van and crushed the pedestrians, because you had the right of way.

and the karma one, i can't actually see anything wrong in that one, apart from criminally bland whiny rock music on the radio

 

[Tiberius Jim]

Thanks for proving my point, and congrats on discovering sarcasm. Yeah, I had the right of way but I am not going to let an accident happen or run someone over to keep it. The things I could have done and the things I did do should prove that between the people in these videos and myself, I'm not the one in the wrong.

 

[Avon]

thats fair enough. but please explain the karma one. nothing happens in it except you say 'karma!' and i can't see why.

 

[Tiberius Jim]

White truck cuts me off. Giant black SUV then cuts off white truck.

 

[Avon]

oh. didn't notice. your rapid u turn was the closest thing to interesting in that one.

looking at the two wrongs one again. take the other drivers view:

'its a green light, so i'll turn, oh no pedestrians! i better avoid them! and going into the other lanes better than stopping in the middle of a junction, i sure hope the other driver doesn't speed up in order to have to brake suddenly to make a point! shucks looks like that isn't happening!'

 

[Tiberius Jim]

Except that yielding to the pedestrians is exactly what they should have done. You don't cross into the wrong lane just because you don't want to pause for a few seconds to let the pedestrians cross.

I didn't speed up in order to brake suddenly, I was proceeding through my green light into my lane that would have been clear had the other driver made her turn correctly. I mean, are we all even watching the same video? I didn't start moving forward under power again after pausing for the pedestrians until the van has crossed my path. There was no "sudden braking" whatsoever...I wasn't even in the throttle as I approached the intersection.

 

[Avon]

so what, parking in the middle of a juction is ok?

then the video would be 'look at that woman stopping in the middle of a busy junction, what a fool haha'

and if we're talking about what should've happened, those pedestrians shouldn't have crossed then, why don't you blame them some?

now posting these videos is fair enough, and i would never tell someone to stop, but you can't expect people to just automatically agree with how you read a situation when we just see a video, and from the viewers perspective they come off as boring occurances.

 

[Tiberius Jim]

Um..what? The pedestrians had the Walk signal and were rightfully in the crosswalk. And no, had the woman simply waited for a few seconds for the people to cross (hardly what I would call "parking") there wouldn't have been a video in the first place because nothing would have gone wrong. When I make a left turn at that intersection, if there is a pedestrian in the cross walk I pause in the intersection for a moment while the cross, and then I proceed when safe. Pretty standard procedure.

 

[Squiggy]

And somehow it comes off as petty for me to make these videos but somehow its funny to take the time to film yourself watching my video...

Comedy is funny that way.

 

[Avon]

ok whats the point in giving a green light to both cars and pedestrians? if thats how it is you have to expect minor shit like this happening

 

[Roger Wilco]

I don't want to be overly critical of FC here, but one thing that annoyed me was, yes, what some of the other drivers did was dumb, giving very short notice about changing lanes and squeezing into tight spots, but if you see an idiot do that, why not slow down and give him a little more space?

 

[Tiberius Jim]

ok whats the point in giving a green light to both cars and pedestrians? if thats how it is you have to expect minor shit like this happening

When would you suggest the pedestrians be given the opportunity to cross? When traffic is traveling perpendicular to them from the main road? The green light here is for those either going straight or turning left or right. If there are pedestrians, they yield to them. If not, they proceed through the intersection. It's not all that complicated.

I don't want to be overly critical of FC here, but one thing that annoyed me was, yes, what some of the other drivers did was dumb, giving very short notice about changing lanes and squeezing into tight spots, but if you see an idiot do that, why not slow down and give him a little more space?

How much more space am I supposed to give them? The space they're taking up is what was once my buffer area between the car in front of me. So because they're an impatient douchebag who for whatever reason couldn't just slide over behind me (in every instance I wish I also had a rear facing camera because there was never *anyone* behind me) I should slow down even further and just let them on in? I see what you're saying but I'm not going to go out of my way to make it easier for them to be a jerk. I'm not going to speed up and make it impossible for them to get over or nearly cause an accident but I won't make the feel comfortable about the dick move they just made. It's people like the that cause traffic jams by making the driver they just cut off have to slow down to make room for them.

 

[Avon]

make them cross when all the traffic has a red light. simple.

 

[Roger Wilco]

^^
Make the pedestrians wait you mean.