London woman stopped to help man who’d collapsed at in the sidewalk at Richmond and Oxford
But what made her challenge particularly difficult was that the drivers trying to get through the intersection honked with impatience and anger, swerving around her and darting through the intersection as she tried to help the man.
“They were acting like I was a delinquent and I was just trying to help someone,” she said. “Drivers will stop for Canada geese but you’ve got a man in distress and no one cares.”
Paramedics arrived shortly after and took the man who’d been struggling to hospital. Litsas doesn’t know what caused him to collapse or how he’s doing now.
After the ordeal, she posted on the social media site Reddit about how some of the drivers chose to honk instead of help.
“I was frustrated, I was a bit shaken up just having the traffic whiz by you and it’s just an unnerving position to be in,” she said.
The purpose behind her post is to ask that drivers show some patience and empathy if a pedestrian appears to be struggling.
“Stop, put your hazards on,” she said. “It’s a car against a human being and I’m not going to win against a five-tonne vehicle.”
There’s something about being in a metal cage, seeing the world only through glass, that changes people.
Most drivers act as if they are interacting with the world through the internet. Basically, being in a car turns them into assholes.
Indeed. For reference, compare how many people have cut in front of you in line in person versus in a vehicle.
Excellent example! Very rarely do you see a individual just shoot out from behind you in a line and by pass a whole queue of people.
Where as in a car you see people mounting a curb/sidewalk to make a right turn to squeeze past the individual in front of them. Or driving into oncoming traffic to get to the left hand turn lane a few seconds sooner. Or my favourite, seeing people stuck in highway traffic choose to off road to leave the highway, as opposed to waiting for the offramp. Meanwhile a crowed of individuals follows causing a unsafe situation for everyone.
Video for context regarding the last point.
https://www.tiktok.com/@oxtailpapi/video/7222122580495453445
One of many reasons to want to live in walkable cities.
Driving is the leading cause of mental illness
Same thing happens when you put on spandex apparently
The difference is that assholes in spandex aren’t piloting 5 ton weapons.
You’re very unlikely to die if some tour de france wannabe hits you.
A driver on the other hand…
assuming you’re being snarky and talking about road cyclists, i have yet to encounter a single such person being even slightly annoying, and i presume it’s effectively just made up honestly.
I love to cycle both on and off road but there is a very specific type of rider who likes to ride 3 wide on a 2 lane road in an 80 zone. Just why?
Come to Toronto lol
Another thing I noticed, is that drivers had zero patience when you are in a bike stopping traffic because you need to turn on an intersection, while other cars stop the transit in the same way a lot more and they just wait. If you don’t want me to stop the transit using space, vote for the major that wants to build bike lanes.
Cars block public transit where you are? Where I am, public transit always gets the right of way.
Sorry, English isn’t my first language. I didn’t mean blocking transit, but traffic. But yeah, they block the transit too lmao.
what’s the difference between a pedestrian and a pedophile?
I dunno, I was texting, didn’t listen past the first syllable. oof, fucking potholes here, amirite?
-every driver
I’m so fucking glad I got out of that hellhole of a city.
I would really like to live in a town/city that does not have this issue. North America really needs to reassess its roadways and infrastructure.
The path to safe infrastructure is usually not just “remove all barriers” but instead “control the flow of traffic”.
