Ten Annoying Things Drivers and Pedestrians Do to Tick Me Off

Driving can be pretty stressful because you have to think quick while driving.  For me, I'm pretty sharp at my driving skills and I have to quickly analyze a bunch of factors, such as: Road conditions, driving patterns of drivers around me, known dangers/risks, hazards on road, time of day, type of vehicles drivers are driving, etc.

But while I drive safe, my commute is only 20 minutes each way and every single day, I always see people do dumb things, and it's not just drivers, it's pedestrians too.

I felt the need to vent my frustration at these idiots.  Here's my list of assholes that needs to learn to be safe:

1. If I'm on a two lane road with vehicles in front of me waiting single file near a four-way stop, it's rude and disrespectful to pass me and the other cars by driving on the curbside that's designated for street parking.  On one evening on my way home, a SUV decided to jump the line by passing nearly a dozen cars waiting single file through a four-way stop.  I noticed, opened my right window and yelled at the driver: "YOU SON OF A BITCH BASTARD!"
2. If I'm driving the speed limit and you honk at me, flash your high beams, or tailgate me to drive faster, I won't.  Do that to me twice, here comes "the bird."
3. Don't cut me off, especially if you are too late to be in the wrong lane for an exit or designated turn lane.  Just take the exit/turn and go around.  I nearly got into an accident after a dump truck cut me off trying to pull a last second turn.
4. If you drive in rain or fog during the day, use your evening headlights.  It's not just the law, it's basic courtesy because it's hard to see your headlights and taillights in poor visibility.
5. If you feel you can't make a full u-turn without the need to stop and back-up, then go around the block.  You hold up traffic if you can't fully complete that u-turn in one shot.
6. There's a reason why the city installed countdown timers on crosswalk signals, if the countdown is happening and you haven't started crossing, JUST DON'T.  You don't have three damn seconds to cross four lanes of traffic.  There's a reason why there's a countdown, it gives drivers a chance to make a turn and gives pedestrians already crossing to pace themselves to make sure to complete the crossing before it hits zero.
7. If you drive your car on a bike lane, you just suck.
8. People who pass a stopped Muni metro vehicle or Cable Car that is discharging and boarding passengers.
9. Please press the pedestrian crossing button to cross.  In some intersections, the signals intentionally give extra time to cross the street if you press the button (e.g. Winston & Lake Merced).  If you don't press it, instead of getting 15 seconds to cross, you might get less than five.
10. Please don't risk your life trying to run for the bus by committing an illegal act like crossing against the red light/crosswalk signal or run in front of the moving bus to make it stop.  Another bus will come along shortly.

That's it for blowing some steam.  Sorry for not blogging for over a week, I had really bad seasonal allergies that ruined my week and weekend.

Many Drivers Don't Respect the Do Not Pass Laws at Muni Metro Stops

"Hey, what the f--- are you doing!?!?!?!"

That's the first words I blurted out loud when I just exited the metro yesterday morning before 9AM. To those I offended by saying the f-word in public, sorry.

Here's what happened:
I had to visit a local x-ray center to get my teeth scanned, so I took the M-Ocean View metro from my workplace at SF State to 14th and West Portal. When the train got to 14th Avenue, I exited the train, looked both ways to make sure it was okay to cross, and noticed a grey SUV approaching at about 300 feet towards the train in the right lane (the train was in the track lane on the left).

There was enough time to reach the curb with the assumption the SUV would stop as well (even if the SUV was approaching, I could walk fast enough to cross), so I hopped off the train and was about eight feet away from the sidewalk/curb.

Instead of the SUV stopping, it decided to keep driving through the stopped metro train with inches to spare from clipping me. To make matters worse, two other passengers stepped off the train (exited) and saw the SUV pass by IN FRONT OF THEM. That's when I yelled out, "HEY, WHAT THE F--- ARE YOU DOING?!?!"

Instead of the SUV driver admitting to a mistake and quickly coming to a stop, it decides to quickly stop at the intersection and speed off very quickly down West Portal.

As for me yelling out the f-word, I sure had a lot of people staring at me, but hopefully they knew why; that idiot driver could have mowed down up to three people, including myself.

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This brings me to the topic of the day: Why are people disrespecting the "Do Not Pass" laws when a light rail and cable car is stopped at a designated stop to discharge and accept passengers?

Every time I ride the metro or the California line cable car I see it every time, some prick driver deciding to speed through while the vehicle is stopped to discharge and accept passengers.

It seems to be worse on the California cable car line because tourists sometimes don't look both ways and you get a bunch of rude drivers who just doesn't obey the law; in one case, I was a driver, and stopped for a cable car discharging passengers. The taxicab behind me decides to blow his horn at me, so I give the driver the finger as more passengers discharge from the cable car.

Even Stanley Roberts of KRON took on this issue with this video report:

The law states that if a metro train or cable car is stopped to pickup/discharge passengers, a driver must stop behind the vehicle to allow the passengers to board and exit without fear of being hit. A driver can attempt to proceed/pass a railed vehicle on the right side only when the vehicle starts moving.

In some circumstances, the boarding island will have a sign saying it's OK to pass, but at a reduced speed. You find these on Ocean Avenue for the K-Ingleside line where you can pass on the right, but only at 10MPH when the light rail vehicle is stopped at the island. In other cases, you can pass at full speed because the island has barriers to separate pedestrians from vehicles (e.g. St. Francis Circle metro stop, see photo by clicking here).

In my case, 14th Avenue and West Portal didn't have a barrier, only a boarding island that only covers half of a one car train, therefore the "do not pass" law applies.

Drivers who violates the law: What's your damn hurry? Is it worth a $250 fine and a point on your driving record? Is it worth facing a judge in traffic court and possibly spending time at traffic school? It is worth raising your insurance rates? And is it worth possibly hitting a pedestrian, paying their medical bills/funeral costs, getting arrested, prosecuted, and spending time in jail? Hell no.

So do me a favor drivers, when a metro train or cable car is stopped and passengers must exit by crossing a traffic lane, just stop behind it. All I need is more x-ray radiation to check for a broken arm, leg, and other stuff.

What's the Hurry on the Upper Great Highway?

The Upper Great Highway, a place where driving is easy, gets closed on occasion due to flooding and sand from the beach piling up on the road, and very little traffic to fight over. It's been my normal route when I have to drive to work because driving on Sunset can be a little stressful, especially worrying about pedestrian right-of-way and traffic cops waiting to nab you.

Just today on my regular drive on Upper Great Highway going southbound, I was driving along and noticed a car pass me on my right going 45, and the one behind me deciding to tailgate me, get upset, and pass me too (I was driving the 35 MPH speed limit). The first car that passed me also decided to cut-off other cars so it could be in front of the convoy (I'll explain about the convoy in a moment), but because of the driver's speeding, had to slam his/her brakes upon reaching the red light.

In other instances when I drive on that stretch of road, especially in the evenings, I find a lot of arrogant drivers who feels it's absolutely A-OK to run all the red lights and speed the hell out of the stretch.

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My dad told me a long time ago, the Upper Great Highway never had signals, and that became a hot spot for drivers to drag race their cars. But once the signals was installed, things changed.

These days, the traffic signals are all timed so drivers who drive about 33-35 MPH gets green lights with no need to hit the brake, those who go slower may eventually get a red light, while others who drives too fast will eventually have to hit their brake to stop at a red light and wait for a moment to turn green.

Unfortunately, there's a lot of people who just feels the need to speed; what's your damn hurry? For those who wants to drive super fast and cut cars off, they will eventually get caught with a red light. Those who wants to be the leader of the convoy (cars driving within the signal cycle) also realizes that speeding means using their brakes more often for red lights, while other cars who are in the other lane driving the speed limit zooms by because they can time the signals just by driving a certain speed, or if going a little fast before the signal turns green, can just adjust their speed very slightly and won't need to hit the brake at the next signal.

There are days when I wish the police was keeping a better eye on that stretch of road. The worst drivers decides to break all the rules by speeding and blowing through red lights. Others decide to stop at a red light and just proceed through while it's still red. I've only seen a couple of occasions when police officers pulled over a driver for running the red, including once instance where I was in the left lane and in the right was a red light runner that blew a signal while a US Park Police officer's patrol car was right behind the driver (that driver definitely got nabbed!).

Even if cops can't patrol the stretch, it would be nice if the city could re-install the missing 35 MPH speed limit signs to remind drivers that going 45 is unacceptable.

Will the City Ever Reopen Great Highway Southbound from Sloat to Skyline?

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It's been nearly six months since the southbound stretch of Great Highway between Sloat Boulevard and Skyline Boulevard has been shut-down due to massive erosion of the shoreline from the winter storms (SF Gate & KPIX).

The articles stated the roads may re-open during the "Summer" and now it is the Summer months and the stretch of road has not been reopened to traffic. Even more odd is for the past couple of months, I have not seen a construction crew working on the closed stretch. It makes me wonder, when will the city ever reopen the road?

Since the city shut-down the southbound stretch, drivers who need to reach Skyline must turn left from Upper Great Highway to eastbound Sloat, and turn right onto southbound Skyline. Since the closure, drivers have been driving like aggressive maniacs (Vietnam flashbacks?) on eastbound Sloat:

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1. Just today, I saw a driver pass me on the left lane at 45 MPH when the speed limit is 35 MPH (as stated in the city's transportation code, section 702, subsection "B," bulletpoint #32).
2. The same driver (above) and many other drivers aggressively cut their way into the right lane. Eastbound Sloat from Great Highway to Skyline has three lanes; the right lane is dedicated to the turn-off to Skyline while the middle and left lanes continue eastbound on Sloat after Skyline. The driver I witnessed today was in the far left lane, and sharply cut into two lanes of traffic while failing to signal.
3. I fear the safety of pedestrians who cross the street on Sloat. I stop for them as per "right of way" laws, but the additional traffic and speeding has contributed to those refusing to stop.
   
4. Due to the long-term closure of Great Highway, the city painted a white stripe so both lanes of Great Highway can safely turn left onto Sloat, thus preventing sideswipes and collisions by the far left lane illegally veering into the right lane of Sloat. It turns out I continue to witness near collisions and blatant disregard of the white stripe by left lane idiots who feel its OK to simply go past the white line so they get into the right lane first.

Get the Great Highway reopened. It's a matter of time until someone gets hit and killed on Sloat.

So BART Starts a Hall of Shame Photo Gallery

Word from SFist and the SF Weekly is that our beloved BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) agency has started a Facebook page and features a passenger "hall of shame" gallery.

Unfortunately, BART doesn't like bad publicity. In an attempt to post some of my "hall of shame" photos on the Facebook page, it is not possible for people who register as a "fan" to upload photos, thereby it is up to BART's discretion of what goes up and not.

I have a couple of great BART hall of shame photos, showing a Daly City Station Agent hogging TWO parking spaces on MULTIPLE occasions. See the two photos here. But I guess that since BART controls what photos goes up on their own "hall of shame," I guess BART and their little happy union won't like it if my agent "abuse of powers - hall of shame" photos gets posted there.

Unfortunately, BART is not the first to start their own "hall of shame" gallery regarding their transit agency, "BARTrage" started theirs much longer ago then the transit agency.

I even started my own hall of shame dedicated to "aggressive drivers," "idiot parking," and "parking hogs" where I snapped photos from my journeys around San Francisco (including this one I love a lot). I even started my own worldwide group called "Parking Space Hogs" with over 190 pictures from around the world.

At this point, I really have to question BART's own intention of making their own sanctioned "hall of shame gallery." Sure, in one way, it's legal ("Johns" who get arrested for soliciting for prostitution gets plastered on a billboard), but from a moral standpoint and as a quasi-government agency, I think it's also inappropriate. Leave it up to the amateurs like BARTrage, SFist, SF Weekly, and myself to nail those morons.