We all have our pet peeves and some of us (including yours truly) could come up with a very long list. I don’t know where it would be on my list but clearly somewhere at the top would be rude pedestrians. I know what you’re thinking. What exactly does that mean? Let me give you a few examples.

You are driving and come to a stop sign. There are pedestrians crossing the street so of course you are going to allow them to do so. However one or more not only takes their time but are talking on their cellphones engaged in an animated conversation and oblivious to the fact they are actually walking in the street.

This is even worse when someone does this not at a stop sign or intersection but rather in the middle of the road. They almost challenge you to stop which of course you do but they then give you this dirty look as if you did something wrong. Even though they are crossing illegally they take their sweet time as if they don’t have a care in the world. Pokémon Go players may fall into this category.

I’ve mentioned in the past the confusion at times with signs that tell you to yield to pedestrians in a cross walk. To me the key is “in the crosswalk” and I’m always going to stop in those cases, especially along beach areas where families with small children are often crossing.However I have noticed that many people just walk without even looking and assume that drivers will stop automatically when they see a cross walk.

Pedestrians in this case still have an obligation to stop first before entering the cross walk but often they don’t and when the driver has to jam on their brakes it’s the walkers who offer the nasty look. And then slowly cross.

We are all pedestrians at some point and of course want those operating vehicles to look out for us with safety in mind. However it works both ways and just like drivers should have respect for those walking it needs to work the other way as well. Is that too much to ask?

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