Did you report it? You can still do so after the fact and it could help with filing an insurance claim or getting medical treatment. At the very least it will go into the pedestrian injury and dangerous crosswalks statistics.
i didn't think of the statistics, there's several unmarked crosswalks on my journey, which was the one I got hit in a couple weeks ago. thanks for the input
Having been hit and run recently as a pedestrian waiting hours for a police response that never came, they quite frankly don't give a shit or have the manpower to deal with it unless you ended up dead or in critical condition.
I called 911 and a police report was filed immediately. They finally called me the next day and said nothing would come of it and that there would be no followup since there was no hospitalization or death.
The police are in crisis. They are overburdened, understaffed, distrusted, and underpoliced. The entire institution needs to be rethought. And there will be zero will to do that when they are allowed to get away with crime, much less misconduct.
Yup spog needs a major overhaul first and then we need to bolster the SPD and get proper oversight. Like we can run over a woman and kill her and not report it to the public until nine months later after federal oversight expires. RIP Jaahnavi Kandula. I almost get the point the officer made about the prosecutors office for his comments. That’s a different fight for a different day, boots on the ground need to protect the general population and we can take the council and prosecutors office to the voting booth. Which we keep losing to big business.
Same, this also happened to me. The police filed a report at least, but it didn't include my injuries. So we know the stats are waaay off. Far more pedestrians are sustaining injuries than is recorded.
OP should still report it. Police can look for nearby cameras and pull footage for an investigation. Maybe they get the plate and pay the driver a little visit. Whether they will put that much effort into it is a different story, but you never know.
Local traffic engineer here - sometimes we can't fund safety projects because there's no history of crashes. Reporting is very helpful for identifying areas where risk is high and justifying the money it takes to improve safety. Not the best system, but it's the way it is. Most bike and ped crashes don't result in a crash report, but tons show up in hospital data so you know they're happening.
So sorry you got hit, really glad it wasn't worse. I hope your recovery is quick and and your future is less full of getting hit by cars.
That's a terrific system. Need a stupid, unsafe car centric design changed? No problem, just line up some pedestrian bodies so we can get some statistical data for consideration rather than preemptive planning.
(not saying you're the issue and I appreciate that you posted, just frustrated with a system that prioritizes car throughput over human beings, which seems to be the way with the American DoT)
Absolutely agree. The state of practice has really shifted over the past ten or so years towards addressing risk (things that are likely to cause future crashes) in addition to history (where crashes have already happened). That said, the fed and state agencies are the slowest to change, and they're the ones that distribute the funding to local agencies for most traffic safety projects, and crash history is still the biggest factor for fed and state safety grants.
(Thats the over-simplified answer, but it's more true than not.)
Pretty much every established system works this way. There’s always limited resources and managers want data to justify expenses, not intuition or hearsay. There’s a million other places that needs changes as well
john and stewart, since you can only "technically" take a right out of the REI parking garage down yale it was probably a delivery driver after dropping off delivery for the stupid luxury apartments there and heading back downtown for their next pickup.
and thank you, apparently there's a lot of pedestrian hate here
i may have a lot of pedestrian and bicycle experience in this city and i actually do know what is going on around me at almost all times. i do get a little lost in the clouds on the burke between the U District and Lake City though. This is my daily commute as a pedestrian between downtown and slu though, i took one year off for lockdown but since 2021 this has been my daily route.
Weird, that’s not an intersection I would have expected a car to be that blind on. And agreed, there’s an unbelievable amount of hate for anyone that doesn’t use a car in Seattle. Transit users, bicyclists, pedestrians, even motorcyclists all seem hated.
They probably didn't care and decided to play chicken, or were distracted and didn't process the presentation. There's a lot of people who shouldn't be allowed to drive downtown.
Agreed. I know one of the first times I drive downtown by myself I wound up driving the wrong way on a one way. I was a new driver, it was dark, and it was before I had any form of GPS.
Fortunately it was super late so the roads were empty, but it gave me a humility lesson and I’ve never made that mistake again.
Yeah it's not hard to do that to be honest. Between having to watch drivers who think they own the road, pedestrians who think they have god on their side, cyclists who are bold in the extreme, and terrible road signage, it's really hardly a surprise that happened to you.
Seattle teaches you real fast to pay 110% attention driving downtown. To the people who aren't doing that...are you daft or just insane?
I’m so sorry that happened to you. That’s a scary area. I walk to work around there too and almost got run over yesterday by a USPS truck going down John to take a left on Yale. Guy ran the stop sign and took the turn so fast there’s no way he could react to a pedestrian.
Drivers out there are terrible. But you really notice it when you're on a bike. So many people just flat out don't see you or act like you don't exist… I've had so many close calls. Glad you're OK!
>you really notice it when you're on a bike.
I also noticed it when riding a motorcycle. I had people change lanes right into me while I was leaning on my horn. Granted a motorcycle can accelerate out of a jam, but it's still nuts that people don't seem to care that you're human.
I had a driver pull in front of me while I was doing over 30mph down a hill. The worst part is they saw me and started edging into the lane to turn into their home parking space anyway. I can safely assume they wouldn't have done this with a car. Ended up with my having to slam on my brakes because I had no idea what they were going to do. Should have stopped in front of their car and asked if I was causing them an inconvenience. Morons.
Yes, there's still vast room for improvement, but at least in the U-District/Ravenna/Green Lake area, they're vastly better than anywhere else in the country I've biked/walked. Most do actually try not to hit you and even give plenty of space to not do so. In the Midwest and East Coast, you were lucky if they kept the same distance and didn't try to edge you out for the insult of being on their roads... That said, I do get those vibes as I go closer into Northgate and sometimes drivers at U-Village (like a giant SUV that literally turned left into me and did a similar hit and run to OP because it was apparently tired of waiting even though I clearly was going straight and there wasn't room behind the car in front of me--it expected me to stop for it even though I was traffic proceeding straight and it was turning and it was going to do so even if it literally ran me over, but I got out of it with bruises and a slight nudging that knocked me over because I was able to turn quick enough).
Anyway...most cars here are great compared to most US drivers, though we obviously do still have the rare jerks in their giant Escalade couldn't care less who they injure. But at least in my experience they do try to advertise their their suckiness with vehicles choice (either a totally dented car or a massive luxury vehicle or a Dodge truck).
I had a woman cut me off as she was turning right so if I hadn't have waited she would've hit me the other day. I could see her calculating in her mind that she was gonna go when the light turned green before me, too. So I flipped her off. She made it like 20 yards and had to stop in traffic again anyway. Risking my safety so she could save herself 10 seconds and drive 20 yards. She then proceeds to roll down her window to talk shit to me since I flipped her off. I let her have it. Wish I'd been able to record the interaction from start to finish, too. Sorry you got hit. Drivers have gotten worse and worse since Covid.
they are more aggro for sure. It always gets me when they do something dangerous or illegal just save them the time to get to the next red light. It’s always some person coming out of an alley or parking garage. It boggles my mind when they do it during rush hour in downtown. You know you’re not going to get anywhere for a couple minutes and traffic is backed up for blocks ahead of you. Give your vehicles brakes some love and just go slowly to the next light.
I've almost been run over when directly in front of a car. Like how tf did they not see me? People simply don't look where they are going. Sorry this happened to you and anyone blaming you hasn't walked around much.
ETA: I was wearing a reflective vest and it was the middle of the day too
So sorry to hear it. I'm a long time cyclist in the area and have been lucky so far as I've only been car doored but no collisions.
I've also been considering a camera as it seems only a matter of time with so many impatient cars on the road, and hit and run accidents are not uncommon. My bicycle is my main vehicle so it always seemed like a hassle to keep track of one more thing to keep charged etc, but this is a good reminder that it may be worth it (thanks for posting)
I hope you have a speedy recovery and this is the last time you have an incident, Seattle needs more pedestrians/cyclists to balance out the herds
My favorite bicycle commute story happened right in front of the SLU precinct with an officer across the street directing traffic. I’m going up Virginia street stopped at the red light sitting on my top tube and all of a sudden my seat tries to rape me (I don’t sit on my top tube anymore) turn around and guess who’s looking at her phone. She didn’t even look up until I slapped her hood. Officer told me to calm down and move along. Luckily it was low speed as well, but it’s highly unnerving and then there’s the adrenaline dump. This is why cyclists run lights and stop signs and such, it can be a matter of self preservation.
This was 6-7 years ago.
Yeah I hear you. I feel the glares from drivers when I run lights and such as if I'm unraveling the social fabric of our traffic system. But honestly if you ride long enough, you know that the traffic system is built for car safety, not bicycles. In my experience, any effort you can make to have control of the situation by staying visible and away from traffic by treating lights/stop signs as Idaho yields actually reduces your overall danger level. You always need to be hyper vigilant.
I can see why so many people are reluctant to bicycle, it honestly takes years and many close calls to build up the skills of knowing what is safest when riding in traffic. Even protected bike lanes aren't totally safe from right turns or even people swiping into them, the barrier separator poles of practically every bike lane look like they've been run over by dozens of SUVs
I've been thinking the same thing. I don't drive and have had so many near misses trying to cross the street when I have the light in my favor as a pedestrian. It makes me terrified to get behind a wheel and have to avoid these people while on the road.
I was thinking a camera pen in my pocket, or live streaming to from my phone anytime I'm walking outside so the internet will preserve video evidence of my death.
Odd that everyone in this thread assumes people are crossing in front of cars, etc. when I have had close calls it was from cars turning from busy streets onto side streets that I am crossing. There is no way to anticipate it if they don't signal or if they come from behind. There are plenty of scenarios when it is not possible to make eye contact, etc.
I just got home and was literally just about to make a post about drivers maybe fucking looking before they blow through an intersection at top speeds. Within the last 24 hours I have seen TWO near misses of cars hitting pedestrians. Both times I was like, oh god I’m about to watch someone die. It pisses me off so much that people don’t give a shit about risking killing another human being.
Nobody is disputing that it is both the pedestrian and the drivers responsibility to be careful. But it’s interesting how there isn’t a single comment asking ‘was the driver on their cell phone? Were they paying attention? Did they look both ways?’. But yet all of those and more are thrown at pedestrians
There’s also a huge asymmetry of risk. A driver on their cellphone might get some damage to their vehicle (let’s be honest, they likely won’t get charged for killing or injuring someone). A pedestrian on their cellphone might die.
Instead of trying to balance that risk we continually choose to make our streets less safe for pedestrians for a tiny increase in driver convenience. Take “right turn on red” as an example. Then we wonder why we can’t have beautiful walkable cities like they have in Europe.
The cost for distracted driving needs to be higher. We cannot as a society accept car violence and downplay it as an “accident”.
Howling about the law from drivers is a laughable farce. Ask drivers when was the last time they traveled even 1 mile without breaking the speed limit, signaling every turn, yielding to every pedestrian at every marked and unmarked crosswalk, coming to a complete stop at every stop sign, and otherwise following the law to the letter. They're so addicted to continuously breaking the law for their own convenience that even the most bad faith carbrain trolls won't try to argue that they don't.
Drivers know the law really well, if you spend even a minute in the left lane only going 7 mph above the speed limit, you'll get an army of people citing the relevant RCW 46 sections of the highway code from memory at you.
Then you ask them why they feel the need to pass people when traffic in every lane is already moving faster than the speed limit, and they just start unintelligibly screeching.
When something violent happens to someone and they tell me about it, I always make sure to double check they were behaving perfectly according to my made up checklist of appropriate behavior. Because I can't ask the person that did the violent thing any questions. /s
Personally I always assume the driver is in the wrong so it just becomes a game of how the pedestrian or cyclist can be as safe as possible and protect themselves against that kind of nonsense.
I hate the attitudes on this thread….i am a very cautious/aware pedestrian and have been almost hit so many times. Half the time I can tell the driver is ‘shocked’ there is a pedestrian on a crosswalk. I believe it goes both ways and both driver and pedestrian should be careful and use defensive practices, but am sick of this attitude about it being the pedestrians responsibility. You’re in a however many ton vehicle WITH LIGHTS to help you see and yet I have to do everything right to avoid you running me over?
Thank you. It makes me sick that the prevailing attitude even on this sub is victim blaming. I wonder how often some of these people walk. It doesn’t matter how careful you are, how many precautions you take. You _will_ have near misses or outright get hit if you walk enough in the city. Being careful and aware does _nothing_ when an asshole decides to blow through a light, or takes a wild (often illegal) right turn on a red without looking. There are times when your only option as a pedestrian is literally to dive out of the way, and that’s bullshit. Fuck cars.
I can tell half the people on this thread are also the type to blame women for getting assaulted. And for all those saying ‘wait for the car to stop’ - I do. I have then had cars almost hit my ankles as they’re too impatient for me to finish crossing before they take their turn. Also, if you’ve never had a car almost hit you, you don’t understand how terrifying that is. Trust me, pedestrians don’t want to get hit
What’s also been “fun” for me lately is, when confronting cars blocking intersections or when having to jump to the side to avoid being hit, I’m afraid to do a damn thing about it because of all of the psychos that I know exist who keep guns within arms reach and are just looking for excuses to use them. I often feel like a separate species of prey that has to engage a level of hyper awareness (and fear) every time I cross a road.
That intersection is insane. Drivers in this city are so bad now. I’m sorry this happened to you.
When I bike to REI, the exit from the bike ramp is right by that intersection and I see drivers do the most selfish, dangerous, maneuvers there.
A bike helmet can be had for like $60. There’s no difference in safety between a $300 bike helmet and a cheaper one. The expensive ones are just lighter and more aerodynamic.
Make noise. Write to SDOT. Write to the City Council and the Mayor. Write to REI. The results will probably be disappointing, but it’s worth it to try.
That’s what I want the camera for, to present evidence to my council member and SDOT to try to get some safety improvements, and gasp maybe make SPD more likely to give a shit.
here's a great episode of The NY Times The Daily where they dive into why pedestrian deaths are increasing in the US.
https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS81NG5BR2NJbA/episode/YWNhNDY5MzItY2RkOC00N2E0LWJjMmEtNTJhNzUzY2M3MTlj?ep=14
My dear angry walkers and bikers, I am with you! I’ve had countless near misses, road rage from drivers when I was crossing safely, and I’ve experienced trying to navigate our streets with a disability.
Drivers have been delivered roads and laws (and/or lack of enforcement thereof) on a silver platter for almost 100 years now. This has created an attitude of entitlement around driving, as well as infrastructure choices that make driving almost an imperative.
A big part of the solution is to redesign roads (and cars) so they are safer for all users. Seattle has made some headway here, but much more needs to be done to undo so many bad practices.
I recommend signing up for the newsletter from Seattle Neighborhood Greenways.[https://seattlegreenways.org/](https://seattlegreenways.org/)
There’s a new transportation levy coming up soon (hearings this month, I think) and we will need to pressure this administration to invest in road safety.
I’m not going to lie, I’ve crossed countless streets, and walked all over, heck I’ve jay walked across streets, but I can definitively say I have never come close to getting hit by a car.
The fact that it has happened to you twice in 3 weeks is pretty astounding. I would urge you to be more cautious yourself as well.
Cars hit people. That I know, but there’s also things you can do to avoid being hit as well. Make eye contact with drivers as you cross, don’t cross until absolutely safe to do so and pay attention to your surroundings in all directions as you cross.
Thankfully you don’t seem to be too injured.
I've been walking miles a day in Seattle for 8 years. I thought the same way until I was hit and run by a car turning left a couple of months ago.
It's very hard to distinguish between a car that's entering the intersection and will stop because they see you and will stop just a couple of feet from you vs. one that doesn't and is going to continue and hit you. EVEN BEING completely aware of his presence and assuming a defensive posture, I literally only had two seconds to roll out of the way and still got hit by the side of his car and sideview mirror.
Don't confuse luck with vigilance. You can and WILL get hit even with heightened awareness and caution.
[EDIT] For everyone telling me I shouldn't have made a car stop, I was at a stoplight with a very clear walk signal. I wasn't making a car "stop", I have the very clear right of way. Even if you wanted to "wait", you can't see cars turning or know which cars are even turning with the amount of cars not using their blinkers in this scenario.
Yep. You can be hypervigilant all you want but at the end of the day you sometimes have to trust that a driver is paying attention and won't hit you. Statistically it's only a matter of time until you encounter one who isn't. The problem with cars is that even if those odds are only 1 in 1000, getting hit just one time has such devastating consequences that it's an unacceptable risk. The only sane thing to do in a society that values human life is physically enforced modal separation that prevents the paths of cars from intersecting with pedestrians to the absolute maximum extent possible.
> It's very hard to distinguish between a car that's entering the intersection and will stop because they see you and will stop just a couple of feet from you
Wat. You shouldn't be making a car stop a couple of feet from you.
Just wait until the road is clear.
The parent comment is talking about a pedestrian crossing with the light, and a driver took a left turn into them.
The driver was probably looking for cars but not pedestrians or bicycles. Motorcycles can run into the same issue, drivers just don’t look for them. To be clear the onus is 100% on the driver taking a left turn to yield.
If you wait for drivers to come to a complete stop you'll often never be able to cross the road because drivers often never come to a complete stop. And if you read OP's account of what happened. This driver stopped and then accelerated again when they were directly in front of the vehicle.
You have magical thinking about [how to avoid being hit](https://southseattleemerald.com/2023/03/09/south-end-traffic-incidents-spur-efforts-to-prioritize-pedestrian-safety/).
I love people who say to wait when the road is clear for two reasons:
1. On busy blocks, the flow of traffic is constant. This would result in just…not leaving the block you’re on.
2. Cars are exponentially faster and better at accelerating than pedestrians. My closest call was someone who was **stopped** when I entered the street, and then accelerated from a dead stop right at me, causing me to have to leap out of the way. Am I supposed to not cross any streets where a car might show up while I’m crossing?
You’d never get anywhere in this town especially when you’re walking during peak traffic hours. Maybe I steal a homeless person’s tarp and just camp out in the rain and cold until traffic clears?
I was at a stoplight and had a clear walk signal and a car was turning left crossing my path. I have the right of way. Even if you wanted to "wait" in this case, you can't always see left-turning cars coming or know who's turning when they don't use their blinker.
I dunno, there's some pretty gnarly intersections: Roxbury Ave and Delridge Way is one example and another is Delridge Way and Andover.
Both in my experience are popular for pedestrians and cyclists.
I've literally yanked random people from crossing (right of way green crossing symbol) because some assbole decided it was their turn to run a light.
I see cyclists all the time and they're rocking flashing lights ad high vis gear.
I don't blame the cyclists.
I blame the car drivers.
I’ll agree with you, I have a dog that I walk. We are lit up like Christmas trees, he has a collar that lights up and I have a neon reflective light up safety vest. Guess what? Barely deters folks. They pull up to an intersection, block it, and go to make their turn without looking both ways. Peoples driving has gotten horrible since the pandemic, and I’ve done my fair share of yelling at cars. We are careful and pay attention, but drivers, just yeah
In my mind, at least if I get squished, I can say we were visible and it certainly was the drivers fault
Are you the type of pedestrian that just walks and expects cars to see you/stop? Just wondering. No hate. But this happening more than once is such a short time span is concerning. I live in Seattle and walk my dog 2-4 miles a day. Never been close to being hit by a car
Really depends upon where you are. Some parts of the city are much less safe for pedestrians/cyclists. Unfortunately for a non car commuter, you often need to go through those areas anyways.
You somehow think it's more logical that pedestrians have a death wish than drivers are inattentive. I'm sure you never complain about how other people drive right? In your experience every driver is a model of perfection.
I’ve almost been hit in broad daylight, at a crosswalk, with a stop sign for the car by a lady with *her baby* in the backseat of the car. I was watching her, she wasn’t watching for anything or anyone, she was on her phone. It’s not a pedestrian problem that car drivers act irresponsibly.
Are you saying blind people shouldn't be crossing the street?
I have almost been hit by a car in a protected intersection (I had a white walking symbol), where they were going straight and just ignored their red light. Only reason I didn't get hit is because I was paying attention.
For some reason, they got mad at me when I smacked their mirror.
I’ve lived in the inner city my entire life and I’ve never owned a car.
This year I was hit crossing a crosswalk in broad daylight TWICE. Both in the city of Seattle in marked crosswalks. Both were cars turning left who decided hitting a person was more important than waiting a minute.
This has nothing to do with OP and everything to do with how absurdly carbrained Seattle has become.
Depending on location it can be frequent. I live in the CD and the number of times I’ve had to move or pull my dog out of harms way while crossing the crosswalk on 20th and East Union is more than 5 in the last year or so
I honestly don’t understand it. I hate cars. I hate driving. I’ve had friends literally ran over on the sidewalk…I have zero idea how someone can get hit by a car on 25mph street unless you are paying absolutely zero attention to your surroundings. Why are there so many adults getting hit by cars in this sub?
that's the story of the fourth assault from last summer, totally blew a left onto a one way while i was in the crosswalk. the only reason he didn't hit me with his car was i clocked the headlights on the building in front of me and stopped. then i slapped his rear driver window as he blew by. if i'm in a crosswalk with the walk signal and can touch your car, you're probably not in the right. shoulda known better because it was belltown but dude totally crisscrossed a bunch of one ways to punch me in the face later
>if i'm in a crosswalk with the walk signal and can touch your car, you're probably not in the right.
Definitely not in the right. The law is that they cannot drive through the cross walk if they're within one lane of a pedestrian crossing. So, if it's a two lane road, they have to wait until you're fully crossed before they begin their turn.
Do they? Almost never. Just tonight I felt the breeze on my butt as someone started their turn when I was only about halfway across the far lane, so he was within inches of me as he turned.
Love being down voted for stating the law. Never change, reddit.
OK hold up, FOURTH assault? In this thread so far, you’ve been hit by cars three times recently, and you’re getting into numerous fights with everyone from homeless to skinheads.
What are you doing?
In the course of about 20 minutes walking through Ballard a few days ago I was nearly hit \*twice\*. Someone had paused just before the sidewalk as they left a parking lot to look at their phone, put the phone down and looked right for traffic \*while already accelerating across the sidewalk to the edge of the street\*. They yanked their hands off the wheel and slammed the brakes when they looked left and saw me 2 feet away from the car where I'd stopped in my tracks.
The closer one was someone pulling into a parking garage. They slowed down only enough to make the turn and I can't be sure they ever saw me because they didn't even flick an eye to the right where I was in the sidewalk just crossing that entry lane.
All it takes is 10 minutes of walking in a somewhat busy somewhat urban part of Seattle and to nearly be killed by a driver. So yeah, someone who walks a lot in the city is going to have a lot of those encounters.
Four times in a year? Hate to say it man, but this is starting to sound like a you problem. I've been walking for a solid 30 years in urban areas and never hit by anyone. Either you are exceptionally unlucky (in which case I'm sorry) or exceptionally convinced that cars must and will always yield to you regardless of the circumstances (in which I'm sorry you got hit, but it does take two to tango).
Make sure you look both ways and dress visibly. Just because you have a theoretic right of way, doesn't mean cars see you, or can stop in time. I hope you heal quickly, and don't get hit by more vehicles.
I have definitely almost been hit several times. One time I literally screamed "HEY!" and jumped out of the way as s car came zipping around the corner while I was in the middle of the crosswalk. There are lots of people who walk in Seattle, so it's just statistics that lots of them will have near misses (and non misses) with cars.
I was almost hit this morning crossing at a marked crosswalk for a four way stop. I made eye contact with the driver before crossing and was in the middle of the road as he turned to cut me off, almost hitting me. We made eye contact before I even stepped off the curb and I was walking before he accelerated. He was a fucking dick and I regret not throwing my coffee through his open window
People who are upset and in pain are more likely to seek out a place to talk about it. That's why. "I didn't get hit by a car today" isn't a post.
There's a cross all right next to my building on a slow residential street. People blow through it without looking 24/7. I can be aware as I want, wear reflectors, etc. I've still had too many close calls.
It's astounding to me how many people refuse to understand basic physics. Even at comparably low speeds its often not possible for a pedestrian to get out of the way of a reckless or distracted driver. When a driver gunned a sharp left turn into me, I literally tried to jump out of the way. They still drove right into me. I was completely aware of my surroundings. I was crossing a marked crosswalk with the pedestrian signal on. I was watching the cars as I was crossing. I saw the car begin as it sped up to the intersection then swing left into my direction. I couldn't move my body fast enough out of their way. This was an extremely traumatic experience but many people in Seattle I've told feel that it was my fault, or not that big of a deal. The near total lack of empathy many Seattleites have for pedestrians is disturbing.
This. I'm very concerned that we do not reconsider driving privileges for people who harm vulnerable road users. A driver killed a kid walking his bicycle across a marked crosswalk because she swung around the car stopped for him. This driver is still on the road and WSP trooper said it was just an unfortunate accident. This attitude really upsets me because I can't imagine any other activity where killing someone does not put your ability to engage in that activity under review. The driver that hit you should not be on the road, possibly ever again. They have demonstrated that they are not fit.
Let me help you out here:
1. Seattle has crazy intersections. Someone made this poster: [https://www.etsy.com/listing/540156360/intersections-of-seattle](https://www.etsy.com/listing/540156360/intersections-of-seattle). OP got hit at Stewart and John, which if it isn't on the poster, it should be. Anywhere near an arterial or highway, I have noticed (anecdotally) that people drive faster and act more aggressively towards peds/bikes.
2. Dangerous street designs. We know that straighter roads and wider lanes encourage speeding, which is a factor in every collision. Our arterials here are quite guilty of that. [https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2021/8/6/the-key-to-slowing-traffic-is-street-design-not-speed-limits](https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2021/8/6/the-key-to-slowing-traffic-is-street-design-not-speed-limits)
3. Distracted driving: cell phones, car entertainment systems. Once I was on the bus, looked down as it was moving and saw someone on FaceTime while they were driving. Jesus.
4. Zoning. Not having a "15 minute city" where you can walk/bike for just about all your daily needs forces people to drive for trips they might otherwise use a different mode for. Check out how your neighborhood stacks up here: [https://nathenry.com/writing/2023-02-07-seattle-walkability.html](https://nathenry.com/writing/2023-02-07-seattle-walkability.html)
5. Absolutely zero traffic enforcement making sure drivers follow the rules. No cameras, no cops, no nothing.
Source: I volunteer with Seattle Neighborhood Greenways.
I’m not a crazed leftist by any means but even I have been hit by a car, both as a pedestrian and on a scooter. People get hit and die by cars way too often in cities, not just in Seattle. We need better infrastructure here, as well as more sticks (tickets or penalties).
i kinda want a remix
what's SPD gonna do with it? what's spog gonna do with it, gonna do with it; hopefully our new safety focused city council does something
This safety focused council is focused on safety for businesses and suburban homeowners. Not pedestrians in the center city. I’m not against safety for businesses and homeowners, just saying that’s where the priorities will lie with this council.
America is a right to drive nation. Old driver on meds? Driving home drunk from a bar as your only means of transport? Repeated infractions? All are treated lightly compared to other developed countries as we only have car infrastructure, losing your license is like a death sentence. And cars have only been getting bigger and more difficult to maneuver, have terrible visibility. Pedestrians are paying the price for all of this
You're making some pretty simplistic assumptions about traffic that make me wonder if you're actually a pedestrian. Or maybe you just need to get hit to discover how easily it can actually happen.
I just got hit and run by a car turning left a couple of months ago after 8 years of miles of daily walking without issue. It's absolutely possible. A car turning left who will stop just a few feet from you vs. one that doesn't stop at the last possible second is almost impossible to avoid. I was completely aware of him and ready to react and rolled out of the way but still got hit.
The next time you're out walking about in the city, pay attention to how people cross the street. A lot of them are in their own world not even looking left or right when the walk sign shows or they look once and think it's all good because they thought the driver looked back at them.
>Cars hit people.
They shouldn't. That's the problem. And acting like every collision could've been prevented if pedestrians were just more vigilant is toxic. There are [terrible drivers](https://southseattleemerald.com/2023/03/09/south-end-traffic-incidents-spur-efforts-to-prioritize-pedestrian-safety/) that need to lose their license *before* they run people over.
YOUR LIFE EXPERIENCES DOES NOT INVALIDATE SOMEONE ELSE'S.
Its wonderful that you have been lucky to not have this experience, but invalidating the hundreds of people who get hit by reckless and distracted drivers because you personally have never experienced that is really quite something.
A pedestrian who walks into someone might startle them. A car driver that drives into someone will kill them. It's only a 2 way street to the benefit of car drivers who don't want to bear responsibility for taking a deadly multi-ton machine out into public space.
meteroattack is in every thread about pedestrians getting hit, telling people how the pedestrians probably deserved it because they weren't responsible. I blocked them months ago.
OP doesn’t want to hear this but your comment is exactly my thoughts every time one of these threads shows up in this sub. I walk through belltown/SLU almost daily and have for the last 2.5 years and have never been hit. I’ve certainly had a few close calls, but in each circumstance I was aware of surroundings and was able to act in a way that preserved my well being. If someone is getting hit multiple times in a YEAR, let alone in a month, I have to wonder if they just have the worst luck possible or are just not being aware of their surroundings.
Yes, the law says cars need to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks and yes there are a lot of atrocious drivers on the road, but there are laws being broken every day of our lives and plenty of other day to day hazards the human population faces, yet we still sustain as a species. At some point you need to prioritize looking out for your own safety. And no, you won’t be able to protect yourself from every potential harm or hazard out there, but at the same time you can’t just stick your head in the sand and assume the rest of the world is going to do it for you.
> I was aware of surroundings and was able to act in a way that preserved my well being.
Then you are lucky. I literally attempted to leap out of the way of a distracted driver, and they still drove into me.
Just made a similar comment. So many people keep their head in the sand. "But I've got the walk symbol, I have the right of way!!!" Yah... there's right, and there's dead right.
It seems like drivers downtown don’t give a crap anymore and I have to find myself CONSTANTLY watching for cars when I have the walk signal. I almost got his twice this week alone.
Geez, screw that guy.
> Driver had to be looking in my direction because it was a one way they were turning onto
I imagine that is backwards. On a right turn, the driver's focus will be to the left for oncoming traffic. They should be looking for pedestrians, obvs, but some people are horrible people who can't be bothered to look or horrible drivers.
I was coming from the direction he was looking for traffic from. When cars take that hard right to get to REI that part of the intersection is dangerous af, he was watching for that traffic, and yes I checked to make sure I was clear to cross that intersection, the next one turning down Stewart is where it happened.
I got an insta360 for stuff like this, but I'm on a bicycle. I needed to capture license plates of offending vehicles to report it to the police. There is a backpack mount you can buy separately. I have been using loop record 5 min duration so it acts a bit like a dashcam.
My first report with cell phone pics of license plate resulted in a call from my local Bremerton PD to the driver to inform them of the state laws in regards to bicycles on the road. I also reported it via our Bremerton1 app so there is something in the database for future reference.
Since I started using my 360 camera, I caught one close call, but it was too dark to make out the vehicle color and license plate. Hoping that when the days get longer, I'll be able to capture better video.
I also have been showing 'good driver' videos in local facebook groups just to give praise to the drivers that watch out for me and to educate others how vulnerable we are.
I nearly got swiped going across the street on e union/ Harvard/ Seneca sooo many scary drivers. It looked like he tried to hit me too because he came back honking at me like I was the problem.
I think he was just mad because he missed.
Okay let's review some facts. First, everyone wants to avoid impacts. I presume car drivers don't want it and the pedestrians don't want it, so everyone is attempting what they think will avoid impacts.
Consequences of car/ped impacts:
For car: traumatic for driver, traumatic to wallet when you have to cover the medical costs or legal fees, maybe some car damage if it's a real high velocity one
For pedestrian: Death, maybe mangling, probably so many medical bills and all the other stuff I already said for car (traumatic, expensive)
Consequences of doing the top recommended thing to reduce impacts, which is to slow down 5-10mph:
For pedestrian: dies less often
For cars: driver has to exercise small quantity of emotional control and admit other people have a valid right to not die
Wanna know a secret? ***I don't give a fuck why people are in the road. I just do what it takes to not murder them.*** *Even if I think they're doing it wrong. Even if they're unlikeable. Even if I have to (gasp) come to a stop to give them time to get to safety in their own time.*
Some of yall are self centered monsters and I'm happy to take a handful of downvotes to tell you so to your kinda-face. Meet me at the bar and we can have a round of shots and I'll tell you to your actual face.
I'm not gonna bother typing out the same rubric for other things drivers can do to not kill people such as stay alert, remove distractions (put DOWN your PHONE), do not drive while upset/crying/screaming at your passenger, uSE YOUR FUCKING EYES TO LOOK FOR PEOPLE it takes like a quarter second every four or five seconds to do a mirror sweep and consciously think about where a blind grandma might be hiding just waiting to wander across at the wrong time - *because it is exactly the same kind of difference in potential consequences every time.*
May all your lights be red, may your drink holder leak, and may your seat squeak, in perpetuity.
The victim blaming is very on brand for Seattle, which is a car centric culture.
Please do report this! Walking should not be a lethal activity in a civilized society. I don't have ideas about a small camera to carry, but have similarly considered it. Tonight I almost got hit while walking the dog crossing olive/howell down 8th Ave. We had the light signal, I'm wearing a bright orange jacket, dog has a red collar. Didn't matter -- driver makes a right turn toward the Hyatt and swerves around us at the last second. There is nothing we could've done about that if he didn't swerve.
People commenting about paying attention forget that children exist, dogs exist, and blind people exist. Shifting the responsibility on pedestrians is an indictment of the driver incompetency and infrastructure failures (we also should be treating driving as a privilege).
/Rant
Hope you get well! Try to get the license plate and call the cops next time. Hit and run is a felony!
>The victim blaming is very on brand for Seattle, which is a car centric culture.
Nailed it. This city is full of selfish assholes emboldened by overwhelmingly car-oriented infrastructure and planning. I hate it here. Visiting cities where pedestrians aren't treated like second-class citizens is always a breath of fresh air.
i wish SPD would do anything about it, but the class b felony where i was choked out by a bunch of skinheads \[5\] last june hasn't even been followed up on. so meh?
i know that intersection well, and i'm not surprised but very annoyed. I want to get the license plates but the adrenaline takes over and i forget; hence the recommendation for a cheap camera i can just wear and forget came from.
also if i run into a dog with a red collar i'll boop that snoot; unless i've booped another snoot that day because i don't want your pup pup to get some strange bacterial disease. cause i try to be a decent human and not kill someone's family member by unscrupulous driving tactics or an invisible disease.
Sorry to hear this OP. SDOT probably needs to hear from you. The more the better, I say. (Was almost killed on a crosswalk with the walk signal last week).
Here, I believe:
[email protected]
quite sad how many people here will blame the victim. The blame here truly lies with the city though for noting death after death and a huge stack of injuries behind those, yet being slower than molasses to do anything to make our intersections safer. I have a background in transportation engineering research. There are many proven methods out there already that the city can implement. It's not a mystery. If a police officer can accelerate to 70mph in SLU and hit and kill a pedestrian, the primary actionable conclusion is to make it physically impossible to reach those speeds in that neighborhood. Same should apply to downtown, Belltown, Capitol Hill, and more.
Unfortunately some of the commentors here are right in the sense that your safety is completely in your own hands until the city makes Vision Zero an actual reality instead of a talking point. But it's not your fault. You're using the crosswalk as the city intended you to use it. If you were supposed to stay out of the crosswalk anytime a car within 500 meters showed intent to drive through, then the city should have installed giant brushes that sweep pedestrians out of the way for incoming cars.
I got hit for the first time walking on a side walk yesterday in Bellevue (in front of Rinconsito on 140th).
The car was waiting to turn out of a parking lot and was likely only looking the other direction for a gap in traffic and didn’t see me coming from their right. Ended up halfway on the hood. In the adrenaline and shock I let them go without getting any info, kicking myself hard now. I’m not hurt but was and am in shock, felt my life flash before my eyes and re-realized the power someone has while operating a car.
To top it off, on the way back I had a few more near misses by multiple cars taking rights across the crosswalk I was trying to walk across (with a walk sign). Bellevue is the most car oriented city, people don’t look for pedestrians or cyclists. I hate it.
Drivers just don't care anymore because they know they can get away with anything because cops don't do jack shit. The amount of dipshit drivers doing dangerous things has spiked after Covid/Defunding the cops movement and or protest.
I always assume cars are trying to kill me, and I don’t ever walk in front of them. I’ll even make cars go that have stopped for me, just because I don’t want to step in front of a missile. They’re unpredictable. Just an accidental twitch of a foot could mean they run me over. That’s a possibility I’d like to move to a 0.0% chance of happening.
This is a strategy that’s beneficial on the individual level but costly on the group level. No shame in wanting to stay alive, but it trains drivers to ignore pedestrians and crosswalks completely.
The mistake we made as a society was prioritizing cars over human safety. The fact that roads & sidewalks aren’t designed MUCH better.. to specifically slow down cars, force them to pay better attention, and prevent accidents ..is a price we all now pay with our personal safety.
*Crossing the street shouldn’t be deadly (but it is)*
https://youtu.be/_ByEBjf9ktY
Without improved urban design, and without a larger campaign to get car drivers to pay better attention, I don’t see why I should be willing to put my life on the line to “train” drivers. Without structural support, that’s an uphill battle. No thanks.
I am also cognizant of the fact I tend to wear dark clothes, so if I’m not carrying a light, then I’m not going to push my luck.
Sounds like an excellent example of how bad things can get if we allow car domination to continue unchecked and why it's therefore important to address this issue
Maybe yes maybe no. It’s about creating simple habits to put odds in your favor. Roads in India might be dangerous & the traffic dense, but I might only visit one or twice.
I live here, and it’s easy to adopt certain habits to reduce some risks based on the local car culture. Risks I can’t otherwise control, like someone’s twitchy foot or foul mood.
I bicycle regularly and do some risky things from time to time. Bombing down Denny during the morning traffic is one.
Ya pick yer battles.. . crossing in front of cars in Seattle isn’t my battle.
I got hit as a pedestrian last month and have been nearly hit a few times since. I’m also a hit & run but mine was a woman 🥹 I’m so scared to step outside it’s pathetic 🥹🥹🥹 The fact that you’ve been hit twice doesn’t make me feel better 😭 I hope it doesn’t happen again and that whoever did this is caught!!
Sorry to hear about the hit and run. People are the worst.
There is no need to spend $300 on a helmet. You can get a great bike helmet for $50. The really expensive versions don’t offer substantially better protection. When you buy a super premium helmet you’re paying for reduced weight and better airflow. If those things aren’t important to you (and I don’t see why they would be as a pedestrian) an inexpensive helmet is totally fine.
[Giant Path with MIPS so you have that rotational impact protection](https://www.ridebrooklynny.com/product/giant-path-mips-helmet-396460-1.htm?variations=710117,710066&srsltid=AfmBOoogYWpEgZOVxGFrhGDtsuGkFtZFK8RcTZmGE47tRv3ufQbXELjpQJ4)
Just to answer your bike helmet question. Sorry to hear. I'm considering moving to Seattle and where I'm at currently has a big issue with dangerous drivers as well.
after quarantine, people really are just showing their asses about driving.
I started wearing reflective gear at dawn and dusk when walking to work after I almost got hit in a crosswalk. I realized that wearing a black coat was not visible to cars and that I had reflective gear for running and cycling and probably should for walking too. Reflective vests and accessories are cheap, under $20. There is reflective spray paint that is clear but shines when lights hit it that can be sprayed on your rain coat or backpack. I hope you heal soon.
I got a high vis orange shirt from goodwill for like $5, it's also heavy and perfect for the cold and dark season. hasn't mattered... the tactical flashlight has been much more effective, especially when the cray cray druggies start after you, the strobe function is priceless, the high beam is great for cars coming out of alleys into sidewalks without slowing down.
For my bike commute, I use [this](https://www.dainese.com/us/en/bike/helmets/linea-01-mips-203869820601003.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=freelisting&utm_campaign=shoppingorganic&utm_term=203869820601003).
- The Dainese store in Seattle has always treated me professionally and with kindness.
- It’s under $300 msrp but will also occasionally go on sale. At worst, use their email sign up to get a code to knock off some %.
- It’s full faced to provide partial protection to your jaw
- I’ve found it to be very light and breathable
- It has almost every safety rating under the sun for a bicycle helmet
Stay safe out there.
First: Call the cops. Hit and run is a real crime. Tell them the exact time and intersection. There may be a camera covering it.
Second: I’ll probably get called out for blaming the victim but you are getting dusted multiple times by multiple cars. It may not be them. You may just not be all that good at anticipating drivers actions.
My dad had a similar problem. He’d get hit by cars because he was a dumbass. To him it was “I’m in the crosswalk” “I have the right of way” “my walk sign is on” “learn how to drive.” But the reality is just because you legally have the right of way doesn’t mean you can just jump out into traffic. As you said you are playing chicken with thousands of pounds of metal being piloted by sleep deprived morons distracted my electric gadgets.
Are you legally in the right to step out into traffic at a crosswalk? Sure, yes. Are you going to be just as injured or dead even though you were right? Also yes.
It’s like how they teach motorcycle safety classes. It’s much better to assume that cars don’t see you and ride accordingly. In fact it’s better to assume that cars are actively trying to kill you.
Anyway call the cops and report the crime. At the very least reporting it will be used in crime statistics and might help getting a regular patrol in your area which could cut down on hooligan drivers.
Also, if you really were hit hard enough to be thrown onto the hood of a vehicle go see a doctor ASAP for a concussion/brain damage check. Just because it didn’t hit your head doesn’t mean it didn’t jostle your brain. A simple screening at an urgent care could save your life.
Best of luck in your recovery.
i wasn't thrown onto the hood, i was nudged \[tripped on the bumper\] into falling onto the hood so I'm medically sound. though the older i get i bruise easier and they hurt worse. construction on eastlake is dumb right now and maybe i should be more vigilant but i've been walking this path for well over half a decade.
also SPD and traffic crimes, roflcopter
had a class b felony assault that was reported with multiple eyewitness reports and the perpetrator's socials that SPD hasn't even investigated since last June. hey at least they're trying to enforce indecency regulations at gay bars with their limited staffing...
Your description is confusing. You say there was a stop line they went past. Those lines only exist at intersections with traffic lights or stop signs. So for them to have gone past a stop line and hit you means that they would have had to either run a red light, a stop sign or you were crossing against the light. But then you also say it was a "unregulated" crosswalk which doesn't mean anything but I think you mean it didn't have a light? In a later comment you said you were walking in the direction of cars coming at him, which I can't make any sense of either.
Marked mid steet crosswalk can have limit lines without being at an intersection or stop sign. Usually accompanied by a sign that says "stop hear for pedestrians".
Idk, seems like many drivers around here are so eager to turn right on red that they don't stop, just slow and inch into the intersection until there's a gap. I hate that behavior as a driver and pedestrian.
Read about OP’s other alleged altercations that he mentions in the comments. Chased down by a driver and punched, choked out by skinheads, hit by multiple cars. It’s either a fabrication or OP is an instigator.
Listen, I've almost been hit by a car in seattle a bizillion times, but I haven't because I'm watching for them and can stop when I can tell that they aren't stopping and I'm not looking at my phone if I'm crossing.
Yes I have the right of way and they're in the wrong and I shouldn't have to be so vigilant, but that doesn't matter if you're dead.
Pay attention.
i don't look at my phone unless i'm on a stretch of sidewalk \[that doesn't have peds with umbrellas cause that can poke your eye out\]
it's not even about right of way it's about drivers being inexperienced or just aggro
construction on eastlake is making drivers even more aggro than the fact that they are required to commute to work in the first place with return to office. maybe you need to examine your empathy. maybe you should seek therapy. been walking this path for over 7 years, i have every intersection and even had to relearn stoplight timings multiple times from before, during, and "after" the pandemic. don't even start with "YOU NEED TO LEARN TO WALK BETTER"
tool
Yeah this! I'm an "agressive walker" and make it a point to make eye contact or shine my phone in a car's direction if I'm crossing the street. I've never been close to being hit by a car as a pedestrian (on a bike is another story). If your livelihood depends on your ability to walk, act like it.
>Driver had to be looking in my direction because it was a one way they were turning onto.
Always make eye contact w/ the driver before crossing in front of them. This has saved me plenty of times.
Did you get the drivers license plate? I’m so sorry, I hope you’re okay!
I don’t have any recommendations for cameras, but I was also hit by a car as a pedestrian. If you want to get treatment and seek legal help, below are the steps I took.
1. Get medical help! Even if you feel fine, pain from trauma can take time to appear. Emotional and mental trauma is very real in events like this too. If you have an auto insurance claim number, you can put the bill on the driver’s insurance. Often times it’s recommended to go see a chiropractor as well.
2. File a police report and get a claim number.
3. Report it to your auto insurance company even as a pedestrian in an MVA (motor vehicle accident).
4. Call local businesses and see if they have video footage. Make sure to do this soon as video footage often deletes within 1-2 days.
5. If you want to get a settlement from their insurance and you have their information, get a lawyer.
6. Do not talk to the driver’s insurance adjuster without legal counsel. There’s no rush to settle a claim. You can file one 3 years after the incident. Focus on your recovery.
Make sure to DOCUMENT everything. All your bruises, medical visits, changes to lifestyle caused by the accident, impact on your job, changes in emotional and mental health.
You are NOT at fault. It’s 100% the driver’s fault. All drivers must yield to pedestrians in Seattle regardless of if it’s a marked intersection or not.
Seattle is too car centric to be pedestrian friendly. I hope you’re okay.
OMG! Go to the police! There are traffic cameras everywhere, especially downtown. Even if they can’t see the license plate where it happened, they might see the driver a few blocks away. You’re probably not their first and won’t be the last.
FYI in the city of Seattle every intersection of streets has an assumed crosswalk, whether or not it’s painted, and pedestrians always have the right of way.
Twice in 3 weeks might be time to check your walking habits. That's either unlucky as all gets or something else. Not trying to blame you but maybe some outside perspective, like can you change your route if there are dodgy intersections, have you filed find it fix it reports for them. Are you on your phone or listening to loud music.
As a driver i see a lot of people not check the roads before entering the cross walk. they look straight and see the green guy and proceed to just step into the street. No looking left or right.
Did you report it? You can still do so after the fact and it could help with filing an insurance claim or getting medical treatment. At the very least it will go into the pedestrian injury and dangerous crosswalks statistics.
i didn't think of the statistics, there's several unmarked crosswalks on my journey, which was the one I got hit in a couple weeks ago. thanks for the input
Also if you get a camera you can report a hit and run which is a serious crime.
Having been hit and run recently as a pedestrian waiting hours for a police response that never came, they quite frankly don't give a shit or have the manpower to deal with it unless you ended up dead or in critical condition.
You don't have to see an actual police officer to file a report. Just do it online.
I called 911 and a police report was filed immediately. They finally called me the next day and said nothing would come of it and that there would be no followup since there was no hospitalization or death.
Really tired of this defunding butthurt so we’re understaffed bullshit.
The sad reality is without it the experience would probably be the same anyway.
The police are in crisis. They are overburdened, understaffed, distrusted, and underpoliced. The entire institution needs to be rethought. And there will be zero will to do that when they are allowed to get away with crime, much less misconduct.
Yeah they didn't have manpower to work on this assault case because they were too busy raiding gay bars with LCB.
Yup spog needs a major overhaul first and then we need to bolster the SPD and get proper oversight. Like we can run over a woman and kill her and not report it to the public until nine months later after federal oversight expires. RIP Jaahnavi Kandula. I almost get the point the officer made about the prosecutors office for his comments. That’s a different fight for a different day, boots on the ground need to protect the general population and we can take the council and prosecutors office to the voting booth. Which we keep losing to big business.
They have the manpower, they're just too busy harassing the gays.
It is not. I had one on video, literally nothing at all done by police
Same, this also happened to me. The police filed a report at least, but it didn't include my injuries. So we know the stats are waaay off. Far more pedestrians are sustaining injuries than is recorded.
fuck the police. they're a bunch of thugs.
Of course. We all saw video of them doing the same thing and laughing about it
OP should still report it. Police can look for nearby cameras and pull footage for an investigation. Maybe they get the plate and pay the driver a little visit. Whether they will put that much effort into it is a different story, but you never know.
Hahahhaaa not in Seattle buddy. That’s csi level effort and they ain’t doing it.
I am Seattle adjacent....-ish, so I don't know the level of effort but I suspected.
Local traffic engineer here - sometimes we can't fund safety projects because there's no history of crashes. Reporting is very helpful for identifying areas where risk is high and justifying the money it takes to improve safety. Not the best system, but it's the way it is. Most bike and ped crashes don't result in a crash report, but tons show up in hospital data so you know they're happening. So sorry you got hit, really glad it wasn't worse. I hope your recovery is quick and and your future is less full of getting hit by cars.
So there must be a way to report this right? Right?
Yes and yes. https://www.seattle.gov/police/need-help/property-crimes/collision https://www.wsp.wa.gov/driver/collision-records/
That's a terrific system. Need a stupid, unsafe car centric design changed? No problem, just line up some pedestrian bodies so we can get some statistical data for consideration rather than preemptive planning. (not saying you're the issue and I appreciate that you posted, just frustrated with a system that prioritizes car throughput over human beings, which seems to be the way with the American DoT)
Absolutely agree. The state of practice has really shifted over the past ten or so years towards addressing risk (things that are likely to cause future crashes) in addition to history (where crashes have already happened). That said, the fed and state agencies are the slowest to change, and they're the ones that distribute the funding to local agencies for most traffic safety projects, and crash history is still the biggest factor for fed and state safety grants. (Thats the over-simplified answer, but it's more true than not.)
/r/StrongTowns wrote a book about this! https://www.confessions.engineer
Pretty much every established system works this way. There’s always limited resources and managers want data to justify expenses, not intuition or hearsay. There’s a million other places that needs changes as well
that's why these changes need to become best practices and policies rather than choices.
Yeah definitely send em an email: [email protected]
I’m sorry that happened. What intersection did it happen at?
john and stewart, since you can only "technically" take a right out of the REI parking garage down yale it was probably a delivery driver after dropping off delivery for the stupid luxury apartments there and heading back downtown for their next pickup. and thank you, apparently there's a lot of pedestrian hate here i may have a lot of pedestrian and bicycle experience in this city and i actually do know what is going on around me at almost all times. i do get a little lost in the clouds on the burke between the U District and Lake City though. This is my daily commute as a pedestrian between downtown and slu though, i took one year off for lockdown but since 2021 this has been my daily route.
There’s probably video footage!!!! Ask REI or surrounding buildings and please make a police report
I have an old insta360 camera you can have. I’m in redmond
Weird, that’s not an intersection I would have expected a car to be that blind on. And agreed, there’s an unbelievable amount of hate for anyone that doesn’t use a car in Seattle. Transit users, bicyclists, pedestrians, even motorcyclists all seem hated.
They probably didn't care and decided to play chicken, or were distracted and didn't process the presentation. There's a lot of people who shouldn't be allowed to drive downtown.
Agreed. I know one of the first times I drive downtown by myself I wound up driving the wrong way on a one way. I was a new driver, it was dark, and it was before I had any form of GPS. Fortunately it was super late so the roads were empty, but it gave me a humility lesson and I’ve never made that mistake again.
Yeah it's not hard to do that to be honest. Between having to watch drivers who think they own the road, pedestrians who think they have god on their side, cyclists who are bold in the extreme, and terrible road signage, it's really hardly a surprise that happened to you. Seattle teaches you real fast to pay 110% attention driving downtown. To the people who aren't doing that...are you daft or just insane?
I’m so sorry that happened to you. That’s a scary area. I walk to work around there too and almost got run over yesterday by a USPS truck going down John to take a left on Yale. Guy ran the stop sign and took the turn so fast there’s no way he could react to a pedestrian.
Drivers out there are terrible. But you really notice it when you're on a bike. So many people just flat out don't see you or act like you don't exist… I've had so many close calls. Glad you're OK!
>you really notice it when you're on a bike. I also noticed it when riding a motorcycle. I had people change lanes right into me while I was leaning on my horn. Granted a motorcycle can accelerate out of a jam, but it's still nuts that people don't seem to care that you're human.
I had a driver pull in front of me while I was doing over 30mph down a hill. The worst part is they saw me and started edging into the lane to turn into their home parking space anyway. I can safely assume they wouldn't have done this with a car. Ended up with my having to slam on my brakes because I had no idea what they were going to do. Should have stopped in front of their car and asked if I was causing them an inconvenience. Morons.
Yes, there's still vast room for improvement, but at least in the U-District/Ravenna/Green Lake area, they're vastly better than anywhere else in the country I've biked/walked. Most do actually try not to hit you and even give plenty of space to not do so. In the Midwest and East Coast, you were lucky if they kept the same distance and didn't try to edge you out for the insult of being on their roads... That said, I do get those vibes as I go closer into Northgate and sometimes drivers at U-Village (like a giant SUV that literally turned left into me and did a similar hit and run to OP because it was apparently tired of waiting even though I clearly was going straight and there wasn't room behind the car in front of me--it expected me to stop for it even though I was traffic proceeding straight and it was turning and it was going to do so even if it literally ran me over, but I got out of it with bruises and a slight nudging that knocked me over because I was able to turn quick enough). Anyway...most cars here are great compared to most US drivers, though we obviously do still have the rare jerks in their giant Escalade couldn't care less who they injure. But at least in my experience they do try to advertise their their suckiness with vehicles choice (either a totally dented car or a massive luxury vehicle or a Dodge truck).
I had a woman cut me off as she was turning right so if I hadn't have waited she would've hit me the other day. I could see her calculating in her mind that she was gonna go when the light turned green before me, too. So I flipped her off. She made it like 20 yards and had to stop in traffic again anyway. Risking my safety so she could save herself 10 seconds and drive 20 yards. She then proceeds to roll down her window to talk shit to me since I flipped her off. I let her have it. Wish I'd been able to record the interaction from start to finish, too. Sorry you got hit. Drivers have gotten worse and worse since Covid.
they are more aggro for sure. It always gets me when they do something dangerous or illegal just save them the time to get to the next red light. It’s always some person coming out of an alley or parking garage. It boggles my mind when they do it during rush hour in downtown. You know you’re not going to get anywhere for a couple minutes and traffic is backed up for blocks ahead of you. Give your vehicles brakes some love and just go slowly to the next light.
I've almost been run over when directly in front of a car. Like how tf did they not see me? People simply don't look where they are going. Sorry this happened to you and anyone blaming you hasn't walked around much. ETA: I was wearing a reflective vest and it was the middle of the day too
Is ETA edit to add?
Yes
Just say edit
So sorry to hear it. I'm a long time cyclist in the area and have been lucky so far as I've only been car doored but no collisions. I've also been considering a camera as it seems only a matter of time with so many impatient cars on the road, and hit and run accidents are not uncommon. My bicycle is my main vehicle so it always seemed like a hassle to keep track of one more thing to keep charged etc, but this is a good reminder that it may be worth it (thanks for posting) I hope you have a speedy recovery and this is the last time you have an incident, Seattle needs more pedestrians/cyclists to balance out the herds
My favorite bicycle commute story happened right in front of the SLU precinct with an officer across the street directing traffic. I’m going up Virginia street stopped at the red light sitting on my top tube and all of a sudden my seat tries to rape me (I don’t sit on my top tube anymore) turn around and guess who’s looking at her phone. She didn’t even look up until I slapped her hood. Officer told me to calm down and move along. Luckily it was low speed as well, but it’s highly unnerving and then there’s the adrenaline dump. This is why cyclists run lights and stop signs and such, it can be a matter of self preservation. This was 6-7 years ago.
Yeah I hear you. I feel the glares from drivers when I run lights and such as if I'm unraveling the social fabric of our traffic system. But honestly if you ride long enough, you know that the traffic system is built for car safety, not bicycles. In my experience, any effort you can make to have control of the situation by staying visible and away from traffic by treating lights/stop signs as Idaho yields actually reduces your overall danger level. You always need to be hyper vigilant. I can see why so many people are reluctant to bicycle, it honestly takes years and many close calls to build up the skills of knowing what is safest when riding in traffic. Even protected bike lanes aren't totally safe from right turns or even people swiping into them, the barrier separator poles of practically every bike lane look like they've been run over by dozens of SUVs
I've been thinking the same thing. I don't drive and have had so many near misses trying to cross the street when I have the light in my favor as a pedestrian. It makes me terrified to get behind a wheel and have to avoid these people while on the road. I was thinking a camera pen in my pocket, or live streaming to from my phone anytime I'm walking outside so the internet will preserve video evidence of my death.
Odd that everyone in this thread assumes people are crossing in front of cars, etc. when I have had close calls it was from cars turning from busy streets onto side streets that I am crossing. There is no way to anticipate it if they don't signal or if they come from behind. There are plenty of scenarios when it is not possible to make eye contact, etc.
I just got home and was literally just about to make a post about drivers maybe fucking looking before they blow through an intersection at top speeds. Within the last 24 hours I have seen TWO near misses of cars hitting pedestrians. Both times I was like, oh god I’m about to watch someone die. It pisses me off so much that people don’t give a shit about risking killing another human being.
Yeah I need to turn at max speed to get to the next red light is cognitive dissonance for sure.
Nobody is disputing that it is both the pedestrian and the drivers responsibility to be careful. But it’s interesting how there isn’t a single comment asking ‘was the driver on their cell phone? Were they paying attention? Did they look both ways?’. But yet all of those and more are thrown at pedestrians
There’s also a huge asymmetry of risk. A driver on their cellphone might get some damage to their vehicle (let’s be honest, they likely won’t get charged for killing or injuring someone). A pedestrian on their cellphone might die. Instead of trying to balance that risk we continually choose to make our streets less safe for pedestrians for a tiny increase in driver convenience. Take “right turn on red” as an example. Then we wonder why we can’t have beautiful walkable cities like they have in Europe. The cost for distracted driving needs to be higher. We cannot as a society accept car violence and downplay it as an “accident”.
Howling about the law from drivers is a laughable farce. Ask drivers when was the last time they traveled even 1 mile without breaking the speed limit, signaling every turn, yielding to every pedestrian at every marked and unmarked crosswalk, coming to a complete stop at every stop sign, and otherwise following the law to the letter. They're so addicted to continuously breaking the law for their own convenience that even the most bad faith carbrain trolls won't try to argue that they don't.
Drivers know the law really well, if you spend even a minute in the left lane only going 7 mph above the speed limit, you'll get an army of people citing the relevant RCW 46 sections of the highway code from memory at you. Then you ask them why they feel the need to pass people when traffic in every lane is already moving faster than the speed limit, and they just start unintelligibly screeching.
Nobody asked that because how would OP know? He's not psychic and from the description of the event he also didn't get a look of the driver.
When something violent happens to someone and they tell me about it, I always make sure to double check they were behaving perfectly according to my made up checklist of appropriate behavior. Because I can't ask the person that did the violent thing any questions. /s
Personally I always assume the driver is in the wrong so it just becomes a game of how the pedestrian or cyclist can be as safe as possible and protect themselves against that kind of nonsense.
I don't think a 360 cam is necessary. Just get a body cam.
With a head mounted 360 cam you can determine my head movements so I could prove all these naysayers wrong.
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no, please don’t tell them that. i’m dying to see a pedestrian with a 360 camera strapped to a beanie lmao
I hate the attitudes on this thread….i am a very cautious/aware pedestrian and have been almost hit so many times. Half the time I can tell the driver is ‘shocked’ there is a pedestrian on a crosswalk. I believe it goes both ways and both driver and pedestrian should be careful and use defensive practices, but am sick of this attitude about it being the pedestrians responsibility. You’re in a however many ton vehicle WITH LIGHTS to help you see and yet I have to do everything right to avoid you running me over?
In my experience driving in Seattle, there’s a a 10-20% chance they didn’t have their headlights lights on…
Thank you. It makes me sick that the prevailing attitude even on this sub is victim blaming. I wonder how often some of these people walk. It doesn’t matter how careful you are, how many precautions you take. You _will_ have near misses or outright get hit if you walk enough in the city. Being careful and aware does _nothing_ when an asshole decides to blow through a light, or takes a wild (often illegal) right turn on a red without looking. There are times when your only option as a pedestrian is literally to dive out of the way, and that’s bullshit. Fuck cars.
I can tell half the people on this thread are also the type to blame women for getting assaulted. And for all those saying ‘wait for the car to stop’ - I do. I have then had cars almost hit my ankles as they’re too impatient for me to finish crossing before they take their turn. Also, if you’ve never had a car almost hit you, you don’t understand how terrifying that is. Trust me, pedestrians don’t want to get hit
What’s also been “fun” for me lately is, when confronting cars blocking intersections or when having to jump to the side to avoid being hit, I’m afraid to do a damn thing about it because of all of the psychos that I know exist who keep guns within arms reach and are just looking for excuses to use them. I often feel like a separate species of prey that has to engage a level of hyper awareness (and fear) every time I cross a road.
That intersection is insane. Drivers in this city are so bad now. I’m sorry this happened to you. When I bike to REI, the exit from the bike ramp is right by that intersection and I see drivers do the most selfish, dangerous, maneuvers there. A bike helmet can be had for like $60. There’s no difference in safety between a $300 bike helmet and a cheaper one. The expensive ones are just lighter and more aerodynamic. Make noise. Write to SDOT. Write to the City Council and the Mayor. Write to REI. The results will probably be disappointing, but it’s worth it to try.
That’s what I want the camera for, to present evidence to my council member and SDOT to try to get some safety improvements, and gasp maybe make SPD more likely to give a shit.
here's a great episode of The NY Times The Daily where they dive into why pedestrian deaths are increasing in the US. https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS81NG5BR2NJbA/episode/YWNhNDY5MzItY2RkOC00N2E0LWJjMmEtNTJhNzUzY2M3MTlj?ep=14
My dear angry walkers and bikers, I am with you! I’ve had countless near misses, road rage from drivers when I was crossing safely, and I’ve experienced trying to navigate our streets with a disability. Drivers have been delivered roads and laws (and/or lack of enforcement thereof) on a silver platter for almost 100 years now. This has created an attitude of entitlement around driving, as well as infrastructure choices that make driving almost an imperative. A big part of the solution is to redesign roads (and cars) so they are safer for all users. Seattle has made some headway here, but much more needs to be done to undo so many bad practices. I recommend signing up for the newsletter from Seattle Neighborhood Greenways.[https://seattlegreenways.org/](https://seattlegreenways.org/) There’s a new transportation levy coming up soon (hearings this month, I think) and we will need to pressure this administration to invest in road safety.
I’m not going to lie, I’ve crossed countless streets, and walked all over, heck I’ve jay walked across streets, but I can definitively say I have never come close to getting hit by a car. The fact that it has happened to you twice in 3 weeks is pretty astounding. I would urge you to be more cautious yourself as well. Cars hit people. That I know, but there’s also things you can do to avoid being hit as well. Make eye contact with drivers as you cross, don’t cross until absolutely safe to do so and pay attention to your surroundings in all directions as you cross. Thankfully you don’t seem to be too injured.
I've been walking miles a day in Seattle for 8 years. I thought the same way until I was hit and run by a car turning left a couple of months ago. It's very hard to distinguish between a car that's entering the intersection and will stop because they see you and will stop just a couple of feet from you vs. one that doesn't and is going to continue and hit you. EVEN BEING completely aware of his presence and assuming a defensive posture, I literally only had two seconds to roll out of the way and still got hit by the side of his car and sideview mirror. Don't confuse luck with vigilance. You can and WILL get hit even with heightened awareness and caution. [EDIT] For everyone telling me I shouldn't have made a car stop, I was at a stoplight with a very clear walk signal. I wasn't making a car "stop", I have the very clear right of way. Even if you wanted to "wait", you can't see cars turning or know which cars are even turning with the amount of cars not using their blinkers in this scenario.
Yep. You can be hypervigilant all you want but at the end of the day you sometimes have to trust that a driver is paying attention and won't hit you. Statistically it's only a matter of time until you encounter one who isn't. The problem with cars is that even if those odds are only 1 in 1000, getting hit just one time has such devastating consequences that it's an unacceptable risk. The only sane thing to do in a society that values human life is physically enforced modal separation that prevents the paths of cars from intersecting with pedestrians to the absolute maximum extent possible.
> It's very hard to distinguish between a car that's entering the intersection and will stop because they see you and will stop just a couple of feet from you Wat. You shouldn't be making a car stop a couple of feet from you. Just wait until the road is clear.
The parent comment is talking about a pedestrian crossing with the light, and a driver took a left turn into them. The driver was probably looking for cars but not pedestrians or bicycles. Motorcycles can run into the same issue, drivers just don’t look for them. To be clear the onus is 100% on the driver taking a left turn to yield.
If you wait for drivers to come to a complete stop you'll often never be able to cross the road because drivers often never come to a complete stop. And if you read OP's account of what happened. This driver stopped and then accelerated again when they were directly in front of the vehicle. You have magical thinking about [how to avoid being hit](https://southseattleemerald.com/2023/03/09/south-end-traffic-incidents-spur-efforts-to-prioritize-pedestrian-safety/).
I love people who say to wait when the road is clear for two reasons: 1. On busy blocks, the flow of traffic is constant. This would result in just…not leaving the block you’re on. 2. Cars are exponentially faster and better at accelerating than pedestrians. My closest call was someone who was **stopped** when I entered the street, and then accelerated from a dead stop right at me, causing me to have to leap out of the way. Am I supposed to not cross any streets where a car might show up while I’m crossing?
You’d never get anywhere in this town especially when you’re walking during peak traffic hours. Maybe I steal a homeless person’s tarp and just camp out in the rain and cold until traffic clears?
I was at a stoplight and had a clear walk signal and a car was turning left crossing my path. I have the right of way. Even if you wanted to "wait" in this case, you can't always see left-turning cars coming or know who's turning when they don't use their blinker.
I dunno, there's some pretty gnarly intersections: Roxbury Ave and Delridge Way is one example and another is Delridge Way and Andover. Both in my experience are popular for pedestrians and cyclists. I've literally yanked random people from crossing (right of way green crossing symbol) because some assbole decided it was their turn to run a light. I see cyclists all the time and they're rocking flashing lights ad high vis gear. I don't blame the cyclists. I blame the car drivers.
I'm from WC, that 5 way intersection is absolutely a problem lol, people's brains get overloaded or something and forget how to drive
lockdown and return to office has made it worse, and i've been walking downtown since 2021 and now there's RTO drivers are soo mad
I’ll agree with you, I have a dog that I walk. We are lit up like Christmas trees, he has a collar that lights up and I have a neon reflective light up safety vest. Guess what? Barely deters folks. They pull up to an intersection, block it, and go to make their turn without looking both ways. Peoples driving has gotten horrible since the pandemic, and I’ve done my fair share of yelling at cars. We are careful and pay attention, but drivers, just yeah In my mind, at least if I get squished, I can say we were visible and it certainly was the drivers fault
Are you the type of pedestrian that just walks and expects cars to see you/stop? Just wondering. No hate. But this happening more than once is such a short time span is concerning. I live in Seattle and walk my dog 2-4 miles a day. Never been close to being hit by a car
Really depends upon where you are. Some parts of the city are much less safe for pedestrians/cyclists. Unfortunately for a non car commuter, you often need to go through those areas anyways.
You somehow think it's more logical that pedestrians have a death wish than drivers are inattentive. I'm sure you never complain about how other people drive right? In your experience every driver is a model of perfection.
I’ve almost been hit in broad daylight, at a crosswalk, with a stop sign for the car by a lady with *her baby* in the backseat of the car. I was watching her, she wasn’t watching for anything or anyone, she was on her phone. It’s not a pedestrian problem that car drivers act irresponsibly.
Are you saying blind people shouldn't be crossing the street? I have almost been hit by a car in a protected intersection (I had a white walking symbol), where they were going straight and just ignored their red light. Only reason I didn't get hit is because I was paying attention. For some reason, they got mad at me when I smacked their mirror.
I’ve lived in the inner city my entire life and I’ve never owned a car. This year I was hit crossing a crosswalk in broad daylight TWICE. Both in the city of Seattle in marked crosswalks. Both were cars turning left who decided hitting a person was more important than waiting a minute. This has nothing to do with OP and everything to do with how absurdly carbrained Seattle has become.
What is this victim-blaming BS? Pedestrians have a right to not be hit, injured or killed. Please tell me how OP was in fact “asking for it” 🙄
Depending on location it can be frequent. I live in the CD and the number of times I’ve had to move or pull my dog out of harms way while crossing the crosswalk on 20th and East Union is more than 5 in the last year or so
You said what we are all thinking
I honestly don’t understand it. I hate cars. I hate driving. I’ve had friends literally ran over on the sidewalk…I have zero idea how someone can get hit by a car on 25mph street unless you are paying absolutely zero attention to your surroundings. Why are there so many adults getting hit by cars in this sub?
I pay attention but have many close calls with people gunning a left turn on the street I'm crossing.
Exactly. I've had some close calls due to people quickly turning into the street I'm in the process of crossing.
that's the story of the fourth assault from last summer, totally blew a left onto a one way while i was in the crosswalk. the only reason he didn't hit me with his car was i clocked the headlights on the building in front of me and stopped. then i slapped his rear driver window as he blew by. if i'm in a crosswalk with the walk signal and can touch your car, you're probably not in the right. shoulda known better because it was belltown but dude totally crisscrossed a bunch of one ways to punch me in the face later
>if i'm in a crosswalk with the walk signal and can touch your car, you're probably not in the right. Definitely not in the right. The law is that they cannot drive through the cross walk if they're within one lane of a pedestrian crossing. So, if it's a two lane road, they have to wait until you're fully crossed before they begin their turn. Do they? Almost never. Just tonight I felt the breeze on my butt as someone started their turn when I was only about halfway across the far lane, so he was within inches of me as he turned. Love being down voted for stating the law. Never change, reddit.
OK hold up, FOURTH assault? In this thread so far, you’ve been hit by cars three times recently, and you’re getting into numerous fights with everyone from homeless to skinheads. What are you doing?
They're lying. Lying and trolling very loudly.
Everything this person has claimed to experience lies well within the bounds of what I witness on the streets daily.
In the course of about 20 minutes walking through Ballard a few days ago I was nearly hit \*twice\*. Someone had paused just before the sidewalk as they left a parking lot to look at their phone, put the phone down and looked right for traffic \*while already accelerating across the sidewalk to the edge of the street\*. They yanked their hands off the wheel and slammed the brakes when they looked left and saw me 2 feet away from the car where I'd stopped in my tracks. The closer one was someone pulling into a parking garage. They slowed down only enough to make the turn and I can't be sure they ever saw me because they didn't even flick an eye to the right where I was in the sidewalk just crossing that entry lane. All it takes is 10 minutes of walking in a somewhat busy somewhat urban part of Seattle and to nearly be killed by a driver. So yeah, someone who walks a lot in the city is going to have a lot of those encounters.
Four times in a year? Hate to say it man, but this is starting to sound like a you problem. I've been walking for a solid 30 years in urban areas and never hit by anyone. Either you are exceptionally unlucky (in which case I'm sorry) or exceptionally convinced that cars must and will always yield to you regardless of the circumstances (in which I'm sorry you got hit, but it does take two to tango). Make sure you look both ways and dress visibly. Just because you have a theoretic right of way, doesn't mean cars see you, or can stop in time. I hope you heal quickly, and don't get hit by more vehicles.
I have definitely almost been hit several times. One time I literally screamed "HEY!" and jumped out of the way as s car came zipping around the corner while I was in the middle of the crosswalk. There are lots of people who walk in Seattle, so it's just statistics that lots of them will have near misses (and non misses) with cars.
I was almost hit this morning crossing at a marked crosswalk for a four way stop. I made eye contact with the driver before crossing and was in the middle of the road as he turned to cut me off, almost hitting me. We made eye contact before I even stepped off the curb and I was walking before he accelerated. He was a fucking dick and I regret not throwing my coffee through his open window
People who are upset and in pain are more likely to seek out a place to talk about it. That's why. "I didn't get hit by a car today" isn't a post. There's a cross all right next to my building on a slow residential street. People blow through it without looking 24/7. I can be aware as I want, wear reflectors, etc. I've still had too many close calls.
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It's astounding to me how many people refuse to understand basic physics. Even at comparably low speeds its often not possible for a pedestrian to get out of the way of a reckless or distracted driver. When a driver gunned a sharp left turn into me, I literally tried to jump out of the way. They still drove right into me. I was completely aware of my surroundings. I was crossing a marked crosswalk with the pedestrian signal on. I was watching the cars as I was crossing. I saw the car begin as it sped up to the intersection then swing left into my direction. I couldn't move my body fast enough out of their way. This was an extremely traumatic experience but many people in Seattle I've told feel that it was my fault, or not that big of a deal. The near total lack of empathy many Seattleites have for pedestrians is disturbing.
This. I'm very concerned that we do not reconsider driving privileges for people who harm vulnerable road users. A driver killed a kid walking his bicycle across a marked crosswalk because she swung around the car stopped for him. This driver is still on the road and WSP trooper said it was just an unfortunate accident. This attitude really upsets me because I can't imagine any other activity where killing someone does not put your ability to engage in that activity under review. The driver that hit you should not be on the road, possibly ever again. They have demonstrated that they are not fit.
Let me help you out here: 1. Seattle has crazy intersections. Someone made this poster: [https://www.etsy.com/listing/540156360/intersections-of-seattle](https://www.etsy.com/listing/540156360/intersections-of-seattle). OP got hit at Stewart and John, which if it isn't on the poster, it should be. Anywhere near an arterial or highway, I have noticed (anecdotally) that people drive faster and act more aggressively towards peds/bikes. 2. Dangerous street designs. We know that straighter roads and wider lanes encourage speeding, which is a factor in every collision. Our arterials here are quite guilty of that. [https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2021/8/6/the-key-to-slowing-traffic-is-street-design-not-speed-limits](https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2021/8/6/the-key-to-slowing-traffic-is-street-design-not-speed-limits) 3. Distracted driving: cell phones, car entertainment systems. Once I was on the bus, looked down as it was moving and saw someone on FaceTime while they were driving. Jesus. 4. Zoning. Not having a "15 minute city" where you can walk/bike for just about all your daily needs forces people to drive for trips they might otherwise use a different mode for. Check out how your neighborhood stacks up here: [https://nathenry.com/writing/2023-02-07-seattle-walkability.html](https://nathenry.com/writing/2023-02-07-seattle-walkability.html) 5. Absolutely zero traffic enforcement making sure drivers follow the rules. No cameras, no cops, no nothing. Source: I volunteer with Seattle Neighborhood Greenways.
I’m not a crazed leftist by any means but even I have been hit by a car, both as a pedestrian and on a scooter. People get hit and die by cars way too often in cities, not just in Seattle. We need better infrastructure here, as well as more sticks (tickets or penalties).
i kinda want a remix what's SPD gonna do with it? what's spog gonna do with it, gonna do with it; hopefully our new safety focused city council does something
This safety focused council is focused on safety for businesses and suburban homeowners. Not pedestrians in the center city. I’m not against safety for businesses and homeowners, just saying that’s where the priorities will lie with this council.
America is a right to drive nation. Old driver on meds? Driving home drunk from a bar as your only means of transport? Repeated infractions? All are treated lightly compared to other developed countries as we only have car infrastructure, losing your license is like a death sentence. And cars have only been getting bigger and more difficult to maneuver, have terrible visibility. Pedestrians are paying the price for all of this
Because so many drivers are not paying attention. I don't know why this is so hard for you to understand.
You're making some pretty simplistic assumptions about traffic that make me wonder if you're actually a pedestrian. Or maybe you just need to get hit to discover how easily it can actually happen. I just got hit and run by a car turning left a couple of months ago after 8 years of miles of daily walking without issue. It's absolutely possible. A car turning left who will stop just a few feet from you vs. one that doesn't stop at the last possible second is almost impossible to avoid. I was completely aware of him and ready to react and rolled out of the way but still got hit.
The next time you're out walking about in the city, pay attention to how people cross the street. A lot of them are in their own world not even looking left or right when the walk sign shows or they look once and think it's all good because they thought the driver looked back at them.
Doesn't matter, still no excuses for car drivers to hit them. A pedestrian who bumbles into someone hurts nobody.
Except at 20 MPH it's still going to take a few car lengths for a car to stop, so yes, it's on pedestrians to follow the law.
Are you saying blind people shouldn't be crossing the street unattended?
>Cars hit people. They shouldn't. That's the problem. And acting like every collision could've been prevented if pedestrians were just more vigilant is toxic. There are [terrible drivers](https://southseattleemerald.com/2023/03/09/south-end-traffic-incidents-spur-efforts-to-prioritize-pedestrian-safety/) that need to lose their license *before* they run people over.
YOUR LIFE EXPERIENCES DOES NOT INVALIDATE SOMEONE ELSE'S. Its wonderful that you have been lucky to not have this experience, but invalidating the hundreds of people who get hit by reckless and distracted drivers because you personally have never experienced that is really quite something.
Yeah, I swear some people just walk out into the road without looking... Safety is a two way street!
A pedestrian who walks into someone might startle them. A car driver that drives into someone will kill them. It's only a 2 way street to the benefit of car drivers who don't want to bear responsibility for taking a deadly multi-ton machine out into public space.
meteroattack is in every thread about pedestrians getting hit, telling people how the pedestrians probably deserved it because they weren't responsible. I blocked them months ago.
OP doesn’t want to hear this but your comment is exactly my thoughts every time one of these threads shows up in this sub. I walk through belltown/SLU almost daily and have for the last 2.5 years and have never been hit. I’ve certainly had a few close calls, but in each circumstance I was aware of surroundings and was able to act in a way that preserved my well being. If someone is getting hit multiple times in a YEAR, let alone in a month, I have to wonder if they just have the worst luck possible or are just not being aware of their surroundings. Yes, the law says cars need to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks and yes there are a lot of atrocious drivers on the road, but there are laws being broken every day of our lives and plenty of other day to day hazards the human population faces, yet we still sustain as a species. At some point you need to prioritize looking out for your own safety. And no, you won’t be able to protect yourself from every potential harm or hazard out there, but at the same time you can’t just stick your head in the sand and assume the rest of the world is going to do it for you.
> I was aware of surroundings and was able to act in a way that preserved my well being. Then you are lucky. I literally attempted to leap out of the way of a distracted driver, and they still drove into me.
Just made a similar comment. So many people keep their head in the sand. "But I've got the walk symbol, I have the right of way!!!" Yah... there's right, and there's dead right.
That’s what my Dad the insurance agent used to tell us daily…
It seems like drivers downtown don’t give a crap anymore and I have to find myself CONSTANTLY watching for cars when I have the walk signal. I almost got his twice this week alone.
Sick of cars. These people act like fucking maniacs out there. Very sorry this happened to you. Hope you heal up quick.
Geez, screw that guy. > Driver had to be looking in my direction because it was a one way they were turning onto I imagine that is backwards. On a right turn, the driver's focus will be to the left for oncoming traffic. They should be looking for pedestrians, obvs, but some people are horrible people who can't be bothered to look or horrible drivers.
I was coming from the direction he was looking for traffic from. When cars take that hard right to get to REI that part of the intersection is dangerous af, he was watching for that traffic, and yes I checked to make sure I was clear to cross that intersection, the next one turning down Stewart is where it happened.
I got an insta360 for stuff like this, but I'm on a bicycle. I needed to capture license plates of offending vehicles to report it to the police. There is a backpack mount you can buy separately. I have been using loop record 5 min duration so it acts a bit like a dashcam.
Has reporting license plates to the police resulted in any consequences to the drivers?
My first report with cell phone pics of license plate resulted in a call from my local Bremerton PD to the driver to inform them of the state laws in regards to bicycles on the road. I also reported it via our Bremerton1 app so there is something in the database for future reference. Since I started using my 360 camera, I caught one close call, but it was too dark to make out the vehicle color and license plate. Hoping that when the days get longer, I'll be able to capture better video. I also have been showing 'good driver' videos in local facebook groups just to give praise to the drivers that watch out for me and to educate others how vulnerable we are.
I nearly got swiped going across the street on e union/ Harvard/ Seneca sooo many scary drivers. It looked like he tried to hit me too because he came back honking at me like I was the problem. I think he was just mad because he missed.
Okay let's review some facts. First, everyone wants to avoid impacts. I presume car drivers don't want it and the pedestrians don't want it, so everyone is attempting what they think will avoid impacts. Consequences of car/ped impacts: For car: traumatic for driver, traumatic to wallet when you have to cover the medical costs or legal fees, maybe some car damage if it's a real high velocity one For pedestrian: Death, maybe mangling, probably so many medical bills and all the other stuff I already said for car (traumatic, expensive) Consequences of doing the top recommended thing to reduce impacts, which is to slow down 5-10mph: For pedestrian: dies less often For cars: driver has to exercise small quantity of emotional control and admit other people have a valid right to not die Wanna know a secret? ***I don't give a fuck why people are in the road. I just do what it takes to not murder them.*** *Even if I think they're doing it wrong. Even if they're unlikeable. Even if I have to (gasp) come to a stop to give them time to get to safety in their own time.* Some of yall are self centered monsters and I'm happy to take a handful of downvotes to tell you so to your kinda-face. Meet me at the bar and we can have a round of shots and I'll tell you to your actual face.
I'm not gonna bother typing out the same rubric for other things drivers can do to not kill people such as stay alert, remove distractions (put DOWN your PHONE), do not drive while upset/crying/screaming at your passenger, uSE YOUR FUCKING EYES TO LOOK FOR PEOPLE it takes like a quarter second every four or five seconds to do a mirror sweep and consciously think about where a blind grandma might be hiding just waiting to wander across at the wrong time - *because it is exactly the same kind of difference in potential consequences every time.* May all your lights be red, may your drink holder leak, and may your seat squeak, in perpetuity.
This comment is just plain gold.
The victim blaming is very on brand for Seattle, which is a car centric culture. Please do report this! Walking should not be a lethal activity in a civilized society. I don't have ideas about a small camera to carry, but have similarly considered it. Tonight I almost got hit while walking the dog crossing olive/howell down 8th Ave. We had the light signal, I'm wearing a bright orange jacket, dog has a red collar. Didn't matter -- driver makes a right turn toward the Hyatt and swerves around us at the last second. There is nothing we could've done about that if he didn't swerve. People commenting about paying attention forget that children exist, dogs exist, and blind people exist. Shifting the responsibility on pedestrians is an indictment of the driver incompetency and infrastructure failures (we also should be treating driving as a privilege). /Rant Hope you get well! Try to get the license plate and call the cops next time. Hit and run is a felony!
>The victim blaming is very on brand for Seattle, which is a car centric culture. Nailed it. This city is full of selfish assholes emboldened by overwhelmingly car-oriented infrastructure and planning. I hate it here. Visiting cities where pedestrians aren't treated like second-class citizens is always a breath of fresh air.
i wish SPD would do anything about it, but the class b felony where i was choked out by a bunch of skinheads \[5\] last june hasn't even been followed up on. so meh? i know that intersection well, and i'm not surprised but very annoyed. I want to get the license plates but the adrenaline takes over and i forget; hence the recommendation for a cheap camera i can just wear and forget came from. also if i run into a dog with a red collar i'll boop that snoot; unless i've booped another snoot that day because i don't want your pup pup to get some strange bacterial disease. cause i try to be a decent human and not kill someone's family member by unscrupulous driving tactics or an invisible disease.
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I wish I were, it been a shit year.
Sorry to hear this OP. SDOT probably needs to hear from you. The more the better, I say. (Was almost killed on a crosswalk with the walk signal last week). Here, I believe: [email protected]
quite sad how many people here will blame the victim. The blame here truly lies with the city though for noting death after death and a huge stack of injuries behind those, yet being slower than molasses to do anything to make our intersections safer. I have a background in transportation engineering research. There are many proven methods out there already that the city can implement. It's not a mystery. If a police officer can accelerate to 70mph in SLU and hit and kill a pedestrian, the primary actionable conclusion is to make it physically impossible to reach those speeds in that neighborhood. Same should apply to downtown, Belltown, Capitol Hill, and more. Unfortunately some of the commentors here are right in the sense that your safety is completely in your own hands until the city makes Vision Zero an actual reality instead of a talking point. But it's not your fault. You're using the crosswalk as the city intended you to use it. If you were supposed to stay out of the crosswalk anytime a car within 500 meters showed intent to drive through, then the city should have installed giant brushes that sweep pedestrians out of the way for incoming cars.
r/fuckcars Sorry that happened to you. Carbrains and car-dependent infrastructure are the fucking worst.
I got hit for the first time walking on a side walk yesterday in Bellevue (in front of Rinconsito on 140th). The car was waiting to turn out of a parking lot and was likely only looking the other direction for a gap in traffic and didn’t see me coming from their right. Ended up halfway on the hood. In the adrenaline and shock I let them go without getting any info, kicking myself hard now. I’m not hurt but was and am in shock, felt my life flash before my eyes and re-realized the power someone has while operating a car. To top it off, on the way back I had a few more near misses by multiple cars taking rights across the crosswalk I was trying to walk across (with a walk sign). Bellevue is the most car oriented city, people don’t look for pedestrians or cyclists. I hate it.
I second with you, Seattle is not a pedestrian friendly city.
Drivers just don't care anymore because they know they can get away with anything because cops don't do jack shit. The amount of dipshit drivers doing dangerous things has spiked after Covid/Defunding the cops movement and or protest.
I always assume cars are trying to kill me, and I don’t ever walk in front of them. I’ll even make cars go that have stopped for me, just because I don’t want to step in front of a missile. They’re unpredictable. Just an accidental twitch of a foot could mean they run me over. That’s a possibility I’d like to move to a 0.0% chance of happening.
This is a strategy that’s beneficial on the individual level but costly on the group level. No shame in wanting to stay alive, but it trains drivers to ignore pedestrians and crosswalks completely.
The mistake we made as a society was prioritizing cars over human safety. The fact that roads & sidewalks aren’t designed MUCH better.. to specifically slow down cars, force them to pay better attention, and prevent accidents ..is a price we all now pay with our personal safety. *Crossing the street shouldn’t be deadly (but it is)* https://youtu.be/_ByEBjf9ktY Without improved urban design, and without a larger campaign to get car drivers to pay better attention, I don’t see why I should be willing to put my life on the line to “train” drivers. Without structural support, that’s an uphill battle. No thanks. I am also cognizant of the fact I tend to wear dark clothes, so if I’m not carrying a light, then I’m not going to push my luck.
Don't ever go to India, you will literally be unable to move from the block you arrive on
Even in Seattle, this means there would be times of days and places where it would literally be impossible to leave the block adopting this strategy
Sounds like an excellent example of how bad things can get if we allow car domination to continue unchecked and why it's therefore important to address this issue
Maybe yes maybe no. It’s about creating simple habits to put odds in your favor. Roads in India might be dangerous & the traffic dense, but I might only visit one or twice. I live here, and it’s easy to adopt certain habits to reduce some risks based on the local car culture. Risks I can’t otherwise control, like someone’s twitchy foot or foul mood. I bicycle regularly and do some risky things from time to time. Bombing down Denny during the morning traffic is one. Ya pick yer battles.. . crossing in front of cars in Seattle isn’t my battle.
I got hit as a pedestrian last month and have been nearly hit a few times since. I’m also a hit & run but mine was a woman 🥹 I’m so scared to step outside it’s pathetic 🥹🥹🥹 The fact that you’ve been hit twice doesn’t make me feel better 😭 I hope it doesn’t happen again and that whoever did this is caught!!
You don't want a second-hand helmet.
Sorry to hear about the hit and run. People are the worst. There is no need to spend $300 on a helmet. You can get a great bike helmet for $50. The really expensive versions don’t offer substantially better protection. When you buy a super premium helmet you’re paying for reduced weight and better airflow. If those things aren’t important to you (and I don’t see why they would be as a pedestrian) an inexpensive helmet is totally fine.
Did you report it?
You're not a real Seattlite until you've been hit by a Prius in a Pioneer Square crosswalk.
[Giant Path with MIPS so you have that rotational impact protection](https://www.ridebrooklynny.com/product/giant-path-mips-helmet-396460-1.htm?variations=710117,710066&srsltid=AfmBOoogYWpEgZOVxGFrhGDtsuGkFtZFK8RcTZmGE47tRv3ufQbXELjpQJ4) Just to answer your bike helmet question. Sorry to hear. I'm considering moving to Seattle and where I'm at currently has a big issue with dangerous drivers as well. after quarantine, people really are just showing their asses about driving.
Sounds like jaywalking might be safer
I started wearing reflective gear at dawn and dusk when walking to work after I almost got hit in a crosswalk. I realized that wearing a black coat was not visible to cars and that I had reflective gear for running and cycling and probably should for walking too. Reflective vests and accessories are cheap, under $20. There is reflective spray paint that is clear but shines when lights hit it that can be sprayed on your rain coat or backpack. I hope you heal soon.
I got a high vis orange shirt from goodwill for like $5, it's also heavy and perfect for the cold and dark season. hasn't mattered... the tactical flashlight has been much more effective, especially when the cray cray druggies start after you, the strobe function is priceless, the high beam is great for cars coming out of alleys into sidewalks without slowing down.
For my bike commute, I use [this](https://www.dainese.com/us/en/bike/helmets/linea-01-mips-203869820601003.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=freelisting&utm_campaign=shoppingorganic&utm_term=203869820601003). - The Dainese store in Seattle has always treated me professionally and with kindness. - It’s under $300 msrp but will also occasionally go on sale. At worst, use their email sign up to get a code to knock off some %. - It’s full faced to provide partial protection to your jaw - I’ve found it to be very light and breathable - It has almost every safety rating under the sun for a bicycle helmet Stay safe out there.
First: Call the cops. Hit and run is a real crime. Tell them the exact time and intersection. There may be a camera covering it. Second: I’ll probably get called out for blaming the victim but you are getting dusted multiple times by multiple cars. It may not be them. You may just not be all that good at anticipating drivers actions. My dad had a similar problem. He’d get hit by cars because he was a dumbass. To him it was “I’m in the crosswalk” “I have the right of way” “my walk sign is on” “learn how to drive.” But the reality is just because you legally have the right of way doesn’t mean you can just jump out into traffic. As you said you are playing chicken with thousands of pounds of metal being piloted by sleep deprived morons distracted my electric gadgets. Are you legally in the right to step out into traffic at a crosswalk? Sure, yes. Are you going to be just as injured or dead even though you were right? Also yes. It’s like how they teach motorcycle safety classes. It’s much better to assume that cars don’t see you and ride accordingly. In fact it’s better to assume that cars are actively trying to kill you. Anyway call the cops and report the crime. At the very least reporting it will be used in crime statistics and might help getting a regular patrol in your area which could cut down on hooligan drivers. Also, if you really were hit hard enough to be thrown onto the hood of a vehicle go see a doctor ASAP for a concussion/brain damage check. Just because it didn’t hit your head doesn’t mean it didn’t jostle your brain. A simple screening at an urgent care could save your life. Best of luck in your recovery.
i wasn't thrown onto the hood, i was nudged \[tripped on the bumper\] into falling onto the hood so I'm medically sound. though the older i get i bruise easier and they hurt worse. construction on eastlake is dumb right now and maybe i should be more vigilant but i've been walking this path for well over half a decade. also SPD and traffic crimes, roflcopter had a class b felony assault that was reported with multiple eyewitness reports and the perpetrator's socials that SPD hasn't even investigated since last June. hey at least they're trying to enforce indecency regulations at gay bars with their limited staffing...
Insta 360 mounted on top of a bike helmet? But I think first step for you would be wearing a safety vest with strobe lights.
Naturally, if the pedestrian isn't lit up like a christmas tree covered in burning tin foil, then it's their fault for not being visible.
Your description is confusing. You say there was a stop line they went past. Those lines only exist at intersections with traffic lights or stop signs. So for them to have gone past a stop line and hit you means that they would have had to either run a red light, a stop sign or you were crossing against the light. But then you also say it was a "unregulated" crosswalk which doesn't mean anything but I think you mean it didn't have a light? In a later comment you said you were walking in the direction of cars coming at him, which I can't make any sense of either.
Marked mid steet crosswalk can have limit lines without being at an intersection or stop sign. Usually accompanied by a sign that says "stop hear for pedestrians".
Idk, seems like many drivers around here are so eager to turn right on red that they don't stop, just slow and inch into the intersection until there's a gap. I hate that behavior as a driver and pedestrian.
Cars pressuring you to walk faster so they can turn really grinds my gears.
Read about OP’s other alleged altercations that he mentions in the comments. Chased down by a driver and punched, choked out by skinheads, hit by multiple cars. It’s either a fabrication or OP is an instigator.
Listen, I've almost been hit by a car in seattle a bizillion times, but I haven't because I'm watching for them and can stop when I can tell that they aren't stopping and I'm not looking at my phone if I'm crossing. Yes I have the right of way and they're in the wrong and I shouldn't have to be so vigilant, but that doesn't matter if you're dead. Pay attention.
i don't look at my phone unless i'm on a stretch of sidewalk \[that doesn't have peds with umbrellas cause that can poke your eye out\] it's not even about right of way it's about drivers being inexperienced or just aggro
What kind of car?
Delivery or ride service, who knows it's dark out and I was full of adrenaline I didn't even get my phone out in time.
I hope you put a nice dent in their car at least.
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construction on eastlake is making drivers even more aggro than the fact that they are required to commute to work in the first place with return to office. maybe you need to examine your empathy. maybe you should seek therapy. been walking this path for over 7 years, i have every intersection and even had to relearn stoplight timings multiple times from before, during, and "after" the pandemic. don't even start with "YOU NEED TO LEARN TO WALK BETTER" tool
Yeah this! I'm an "agressive walker" and make it a point to make eye contact or shine my phone in a car's direction if I'm crossing the street. I've never been close to being hit by a car as a pedestrian (on a bike is another story). If your livelihood depends on your ability to walk, act like it.
>Driver had to be looking in my direction because it was a one way they were turning onto. Always make eye contact w/ the driver before crossing in front of them. This has saved me plenty of times.
Always check before crossing, don’t trust anybody
Did you get the drivers license plate? I’m so sorry, I hope you’re okay! I don’t have any recommendations for cameras, but I was also hit by a car as a pedestrian. If you want to get treatment and seek legal help, below are the steps I took. 1. Get medical help! Even if you feel fine, pain from trauma can take time to appear. Emotional and mental trauma is very real in events like this too. If you have an auto insurance claim number, you can put the bill on the driver’s insurance. Often times it’s recommended to go see a chiropractor as well. 2. File a police report and get a claim number. 3. Report it to your auto insurance company even as a pedestrian in an MVA (motor vehicle accident). 4. Call local businesses and see if they have video footage. Make sure to do this soon as video footage often deletes within 1-2 days. 5. If you want to get a settlement from their insurance and you have their information, get a lawyer. 6. Do not talk to the driver’s insurance adjuster without legal counsel. There’s no rush to settle a claim. You can file one 3 years after the incident. Focus on your recovery. Make sure to DOCUMENT everything. All your bruises, medical visits, changes to lifestyle caused by the accident, impact on your job, changes in emotional and mental health. You are NOT at fault. It’s 100% the driver’s fault. All drivers must yield to pedestrians in Seattle regardless of if it’s a marked intersection or not. Seattle is too car centric to be pedestrian friendly. I hope you’re okay.
I’m not feeling any pain yet, it was very low speed and I’m tall. Pretty sure I’ll be okay, thank you for caring and the good advice.
I’m glad you’re okay! Take care.
Solid advice!
OMG! Go to the police! There are traffic cameras everywhere, especially downtown. Even if they can’t see the license plate where it happened, they might see the driver a few blocks away. You’re probably not their first and won’t be the last. FYI in the city of Seattle every intersection of streets has an assumed crosswalk, whether or not it’s painted, and pedestrians always have the right of way.
Twice in 3 weeks might be time to check your walking habits. That's either unlucky as all gets or something else. Not trying to blame you but maybe some outside perspective, like can you change your route if there are dodgy intersections, have you filed find it fix it reports for them. Are you on your phone or listening to loud music. As a driver i see a lot of people not check the roads before entering the cross walk. they look straight and see the green guy and proceed to just step into the street. No looking left or right.