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.

Muni Passenger Confronts Driver for Deliberately Skipping Passenger on 28-19th Avenue Line

With the advent of smart phone cameras means that the actions you do, may get you caught by a person you don't even know.  It's being used more regularly these days to capture memorable moments and when the stuff 'hits the fan.'

What happens when a Muni operator does something totally inappropriate by doing it on purpose?  Most of the time, it is ignored or nobody reports it to 311, even if passengers knows what the operator did was totally inappropriate and deliberate.

Earlier today, I received an e-mail from Tiffany, a long time of my blog.  She gave me the link to the video (as seen on the top of this blog entry) and asked for my thoughts.

From reviewing the video, it shows a passenger confronting a Muni operator on why he could not stop for an extra five seconds to pick-up an older lady passenger whom was running for the bus.  From what is shown in the description of the video (below), the driver skipped the elderly passenger with deliberate intent, and therefore the young man confronting the driver must have ticked the driver so much he pulled over and shut-off the engine.

Video description from YouTube: "On July 2nd, 2012, As I was taking the bus home on the 28 line, San Francisco Muni, a lady was running to catch that bus. As soon as the bus stopped, the lady was still running and approaching near it. But the driver did not stay stopped for her and then sped off. At all the assumptions of the passengers on that bus, the driver did that on purpose and arrogantly. This is not the only time I see this kind of action of a Muni driver. However, this time, the passenger in front of me has finally stepped up and actually ran to the door for that lady. The driver then was displeased and began arguing with him. Then the driver stopped the bus on all of us, and this is where I started video taping as they began a shouting match. I'm pleased to see that someone has finally have the guts to confront the arrogance among Muni drivers. And it's also nice to know now that Muni drivers views us riders as "peons" after all its complete lack of friendly customer services and employee bonuses during financial deficit?"

From viewing the video, the driver pulled over on the northeast corner of 19th Avenue and Irving (the Chevron gas station), therefore it seems the driver must have intentionally skipped the elderly passenger at the Irving bus stop.  Based on the location, this incident happened on the 28-19th Avenue line going northbound to Fort Mason.

Akit's Opinions
While I'm not a fan of the heavy swearing from the passenger, I commend him for being brave and sticking up for the female passenger whom was skipped.  Muni passengers needs to stand-up for injustice, instead of staying silent.  So what if the driver pulls over and refuses to continue on with the journey?  Might make some fellow passengers frustrated, but will further humiliate the operator whose "on-time" window is ticking away.

My method isn't to do a face to face confrontation, but to use the power of my blog to tell the story, such as when I had a problem with the same 18-46th Avenue bus driver who kept driving to the far front end of the bus stop when all the passengers was waiting in the middle of the stop, at least 40 feet away from the front door.  A year later, I caught the same driver continuing to not give courtesy at the same bus stop.

I know Muni installed the DriveCam system on their buses to record the front of the bus, what does the video show on Muni's end, or is this going to be some kind of "internal investigation" where the public will never see the footage from the bus?

Lastly, what action is going to be taken on Muni operators who continue to deliberately skip passengers?  It's a public service folks; heck, let's remember the bus can be up to 4 minutes and 59 seconds behind schedule and still be "on-time."  An extra five seconds wouldn't hurt.

Caught Same Muni Driver a Year Ago Continuing to Treat Passengers Poorly

If you recall back in late August 2011, I mentioned about a Muni operator on the 18-46th Avenue line that continued to treat passengers poorly.  In one incident, he pulled over to the front end of a very long bus stop at La Playa and Cabrillo instead of the middle of the stop where the bus shelter is located; but with no passengers requesting to exit the bus, he sped off while I noticed passengers in the shelter grabbing their groceries and starting to move towards the bus.

So did the driver learn his lesson all these months?  Nope.

Just yesterday, I just finished my medical appointment and went down to my local Safeway at LaPlaya and Cabrillo (also known as "Safeway by the Beach") to pick-up something for dinner.  When I walked back to my car, I heard the familiar sound of the 18-46th Avenue inbound bus to Legion of Honor come by.

When I took a look at who was driving, I noticed the familiar cap the driver of the previous incident wore.  Thinking he might pull that unfriendly trick on passengers again, I quickly pulled out my iPhone and started recording video.  You can view the video at the top of this blog entry.

The short video you watched shows the same driver pulling all the way in front of the bus stop, instead of stopping near the cluster of passengers waiting next to the bus shelter.  The 'regular' size Muni buses are 40 feet long, and the back end of the bus was as the front end of the shelter, so I'd estimate the driver pulled 40 feet too far forward (as usual) to discharge and pick-up passengers.

Akit's Opinion:
I personally feel this is totally rude and disrespectful.  He knows the shelter is where all the passengers wait for the buses and nearly all the other drivers stops in front of the shelter, but decides to go all technical and pull to the far forward end of the bus stop.

I'm also concerned about the elderly passengers.  I normally notice many older passengers riding the 18 from that particular stop, and forcing them to haul Safeway groceries an additional 40 feet while worrying if the driver is going to close the doors and drive off is not a great feeling.

Lastly, wouldn't you think the incident back in August I blogged about and calling it in to 311 solved anything or disciplined the operator for being discourteous?  It seems like he hasn't learned his lesson.  Perhaps this blog entry doing some public shaming will teach him a lesson.

For the record, this most recent incident happened:
Thursday, June 7, 2012
5:07PM
LaPlaya and Cabrillo
Bus #8439
Route: 18-46th Avenue
Destination: Legion of Honor

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.

Akit Already Knows Muni Won't Take Action Against an 18-46th Avenue Driver - So I Will Just Report it Here

When you ride Muni on a regular basis and strictly follow the time schedule, it's likely your bus operator will be the same person. This is especially true for me when I take the 18-46th Avenue line because it operates on 20 minute frequencies during rush hours.

But when you ride with the same driver, you start to notice certain patterns that are just inappropriate, and I finally got fed-up enough to call 311 and report the driver for poor practices. But as we well know, reporting problems to Muni just gets ignored, so I'm deciding to take another step and use the power of my blog to get a wider audience.

Before I tell you about what happened, did you know that in order for Muni to take action against a bus driver, the union rules states that you have to surrender your name and contact information? I usually call 311 and just state I refuse to provide that info, but without it, Muni can't do shit.

Here's the whole story:
Bus: 8417
Line: 18-46th Avenue inbound (to Legion of Honor)
Time: Bus leaves at 6PM at Stonestown (outbound terminal for 18 line)
Driver #: Not known
Description of driver: African American male, thin build, in his 40s.

First incident: Stop at Lake Merced & Font (SF State)
I normally ride the 6:05PM bus arrival at that particular stop because it's just a short walk from my office and it takes me close to my home in the Outer Richmond District. The same driver always picks up passengers 50 feet ahead of the yellow mark on the pavement that indicates the bus must stop there to pick-up passengers.

To make it even more amusing, I flagged the driver by standing near the yellow mark as it was about 200-300 feet away, enough time for the driver to gently hit his brake and hazard lights, but every single time, pulls fifty feet ahead of the yellow mark, thereby forcing any passenger waiting there to rush over to the front door.

Here's a streetsview map from Google:

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On the map image, you'll see a bench on the right side, and just in front of it on the pavement is the yellow mark indicating it's a bus stop for the 18 line. All other Muni operators who drives on this line always stops very close to the yellow mark and the bench, but the regular driver of the 6PM bus doesn't; that driver pulls up to where you see the green "Font" sign, about fifty feet ahead of the bench/yellow mark.

Second incident: Stop at La Playa & Cabrillo
The bus stop at La Playa & Cabrillo next to the Safeway supermarket is a really long bus stop of about 400-500 feet, and the passenger shelter is in the middle of the long bus stop. This stop is so big because back in the day, Muni used that long red zone as a terminus for the 38-Geary Ocean Beach branch, and those articulated buses are a good 60 feet long. These days, it's not used as a terminus stop because Muni built a terminal area for the 5-Fulton and 31-Balboa in an empty lot just across the street, and the 38-Geary Ocean Beach branch doesn't exist ever since the 18 line was forced to take over that route.

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Since the bus stop is so huge, the same driver always decides to pull to the very front end of the bus stop, this means the people sitting or standing near the passenger shelter has to walk about 50-75 feet just to catch this particular bus. When I ride at other times with other drivers, they stop as close to the shelter as possible, and that even includes the 31-Balboa. A lot of times, the passengers are mostly senior citizens carrying grocery bags, and making them rush to catch a bus that pulled 75 feet in front is just rude and disrespectful.

Here's what made it worse. Yesterday, the driver did the same tactic: Pull the bus to the front end of the bus stop (very close to where that white truck is). Nobody wanted to exit the bus (did not ring bell), and there was about three people sitting in the shelter. The driver slowed down upon approach to the front end of the stop, and I noticed in the window, two people standing-up wanting to catch the bus when they saw it. The driver assumed nobody wanted to board, so he picked-up speed and continued on. I took off my headphones and hollered at the driver, "wasn't there people who wanted to board?" I got no response.

By this point, I was fed-up with this driver. He doesn't give any respect to passengers pulling-up close to the passenger shelter at La Playa & Cabrillo and doesn't make an effort to stop at the yellow marking at Lake Merced & Font. Oh, but he'll allow any of his friends to board at any point along the route that's not a designated bus stop.

Now that I told my story online WILL MUNI TAKE SOME ACTION? It seems complaining to 311 just goes through the cycle of nowhere.

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.

I Became a Victim of Road Rage Today & I was Obeying the Law

I guess today is not going to be a great day because I became a victim of road rage.

Here's the whole story:

I was driving to work this morning and encountered two blacked-out traffic signals in a row. State law requires all drivers to treat dead signal intersections as a four way stop (refer to DMV driver manual, page 22).

As a mostly law abiding citizen (I jaywalk to my car across the street from my home), I stop at each dead signal; at the first signal, a truck decides to switch to the right lane and pass me without stopping at the limit line. At the second signal, a luxury sedan decides to blow their horn like hell simply because I'm obeying state law and also passes me in the right lane without stopping. At both of these locations, the vehicles behind me was at least 150 to 200 feet behind and I intentionally drove slower on approach to each dead signal.

The luxury sedan decides to take on some road rage. At the approach to the designated left turn lane, I enter the lane and the sedan decides to cut three lanes of traffic (the far right lane to the far left turn lane) to get behind me. I turn to the next street where the driver decides to pass me, cut me off, and hit the brakes. Having no choice, I had to slow down and attempt to pass to get away from the freak, but decides to go on more rage by blocking my lane changes. It's similar to what happened in this bus cam video, but at least I didn't smash the driver's bumper.

Sheesh! What a morning. I did call DPT signals to get those lights checked-out so I don't have to encounter it on my commute back home. And to that luxury car driver, up yours, and how about a trip to traffic court for blowing through a traffic signal?

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.

Bad Driver - CA License Plate 4LLM210

If you are the owner of the license plate 4LLM210, where the f--- did you learn to drive?

Caught driver swerving between two lanes to get in front of vehicles and didn't use turn signals.

Location: San Francisco, CA; Great Highway (southbound) on the stretch between Lincoln and Sloat.

Someone doesn't need to slap you, but needs to spank you with a paddle.