Why Pedestrians are Invisible to Drivers

In article >,
Scott en Aztl?n > wrote:

> Once again as I walked to the train station this morning I was nearly
> run down, this time by a young Asian female driver. This occurred at
> an intersection adjacent to the one where the MFFY flip-over
> colllision occurred last week (look for that one in tomorrow's Irvine
> World News, BTW).
>
> At this intersection, a local collector road intersects with a
> frontage road next to a freeway. Cars coming from the residential
> neighborhoods in Tustin Ranch stack up in the dedicated right turn
> lane at this intersection, waiting impatiently for an opportunity to
> turn right and then make an immediate left lane change to get to the
> freeway on-ramp. These cars are usually unable to turn right on red
> because they are pinned down by heavy cross-traffic, so when they get
> the green light they are super-anxious to get moving again. It's not
> uncommon for 4 or 5 vehicles to cut across my path as I walk through
> the clearly marked crosswalk, even though technically they are
> required to yield.
>
> The real problem is the drivers a few cars back; while they are
> farther back in the line, their view of the intersection is partially
> blocked. On more than one occasion one of the drivers 4 or 5 cars back
> has honked their horn because the lead car has stopped to give me the
> right-of-way.
>
> This morning the first few cars in the stack cut in front of me as
> usual, but this little Asian cupcake was too busy staring at the back
> bumper of the pickup truck in front of her to notice that I was in the
> crosswalk directly in front of her car. When she finally saw me, she
> slammed on her brakes, and I gave her my best "WTF" expression. She
> waved an apology, so I let her off the hook with no further
> punishment.
>
> But this made me realize one more reason why drivers just don't see
> pedestrians, pedalcyclists, and motorcyclists: they are looking at the
> bumper of the car in front, or a spot on the ground 12 feet in front
> of their car, or off to their left checking for cross-traffic -
> anywhere but the actual direction their car is travelling.

The only real revelation here is that you're just realizing this...

--
Alan Baker
Vancouver, British Columbia
"If you raise the ceiling 4 feet, move the fireplace from that wall
to that wall, you'll still only get the full stereophonic effect
if you sit in the bottom of that cupboard."