My life as a pedestrian can be quite interesting sometimes...running for the bus, being splashed by cars on rainy days, stomping through a couple feet of snow in the winter, dodging around other people walking dogs, avoiding collisions with bikers, crossing busy intersections, etc.

One of my big pet-peeves is drivers who on rainy/slushy days decide it would be most fun to see how wet they can get pedestrians. I'm serious, it happens quite often and it's hard to avoid when sidewalks are only so wide. There was this time my sister and I were walking downtown to go skating at City Hall and someone (I like to assume it's a guy) driving a toe truck decides to go as close as he can to the sidewalk to splash us with the slush. So here we were a block from the rink and my right leg is sopping wet and I am to be skating outdoors. Ugh. On rainy days it's the same type deal but has a greater effect when the wheel hits the puddle in the right place.

On to my biggest pet peeve. Pedestrian haters. These are the drivers that pay no attention to people on the sidewalks, especially pedestrians that have a Walk sign yet the driver will turn at the corner with no regard for the person(s) with the right of way. Great example was last friday when I was walking home from work - I almost got hit by an SUV (to find out today it was one of my coworkers driving a new vehicle). When I walk down the street I live on, I have the right of way and anyone turning off the street has to watch for pedestrians yet these drivers rarely do. Time and time again I have to dash across a sidestreet, or stop dead on my tracks or wave the driver on. It's kinda funny finding out it was a coworker because I remember being annoyed and muttering something like "jerkwad" outloud as I jogged across the street to avoid being hit.

Oh the life of a pedestrian...sometimes I wish people could (literally) walk a mile in my shoes, maybe they'd be a little more considerate. One thing I know for sure is that when I do eventually have my own vehicle, I won't become a "pedestrian hater".

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