Video: New York Drivers Are Rude

What some of you clowns fail to get is that yielding to pedestrians in a crosswalk isn't just good manners, it's the law.

compared to how folks drive out in queens, that was pretty damn tame. an hour on 31st street up by ditmars would set him straight.

what a wiener.

very telling that he never actually depicts how cars in the crosswalk got into that situation. as if they just decide to do that. this city is not 100% optimal for any form of transportation, get over it.

by the way the honker had a PA license plate...

i dont get this whining, this is what makes new york city new york city. pedestrians are wrong for crossing when the cars have right of way (go to a T-intersection and you know what i'm talking about), bikers are a-holes, cabs are crazy. but seriously, if it's all quiet and smooth, it won't be new york.

case in point: columbus day traffic was eerily smooth, and it felt a little too quiet even in manhattan.

So he's not the best guy to make the point, but the point should still be made. Drivers do this in the outer boroughs too, on roads where they don't have all the (whiny) driver excuses made above.

There really is something in our culture that makes people feel more privileged when they're driving a car.

One of you said in these comments: "We don't go out saying "I can't WAIT to make people walk 10 feet out of the way."

But you don't go out of your way to consider pedestrians either, with rare exceptions. And you certainly don't seem to realize that you put people at much more risk than just inconvenience when you force them to walk alongside fast moving cars.

I live in public and I pay attention to these things. The entitlement has to end.

Well said, especially the point about the outer boroughs, I think you hear of more pedestrian/vehicle deaths in the outer boroughs. But i dare say, not a day goes by where i am not stopped in my tracks out of fear because there is a car barreling towards me going way too fast coming up on a red light, no signals what so ever and i can't remember the last time i DIDN'T have to compete with a car in a crosswalk, even worse, the buses, they force me into traffic daily at the busy intersection near our home.

his is what i don't get, put a few cops in any random busy intersection for one day, this city would make so much $$

I made it to 00:39. What's rude is whiny, self-righteous pansy media whores who can't wait for the next camera crew to capture all the glorious posturing. We get the fact that too many drivers are self-absorbed assholes. We Get The Fact That People Are Inconvenienced On A Daily Basis. WE GET THE FACT THERE'S DOUCHEBAGS WHO TRADE IN SPINNING MOCK OUTRAGE INTO VIRAL VIDEO GOLD.

To everyone saying "this guy's complaining too much" or "give drivers a break,"

People in cars are protected by a half-ton of steal. People on foot are protected by their bones, skin and clothes. If the car person decides they need a break, then the foot person dies.

Being bullied by drivers _every_single_day_ in NYC sucks. It saps my quality of life and makes the city a crappy place to live. I have little interest in living elsewhere. It's up to drivers to mature. How this might happen is a mystery to me.

AND...that was shot on a sunny day. It's all 1000x more annoying when I'm outside, fighting with the umbrella, enduring soggy clothes/feet. While you're dry and warm, sitting down...

I love this guy.

I've been a driver and now predominantly a pedestrian. So, here's a tip for all you whinging drivers: When you're at an intersection and the Don't Walk sign for pedestrians traveling parallel to you starts flashing, slow down. And maybe actually stop before getting into the crosswalk.

And if the guy behind you blows his horn, feel free to flip him off.

I get what he's saying, but it's a city with possibly 9-10 million people here during a single workday. It's crowded, stuff like this is gonna happen.

But yeh, his whining is annoying.

God, I'm so over being seen as a heartless evil piece of crap since I drive in this city. And I always feel the need to qualify it with "I have to for work, I have a trunk-ful of equipment." Yeah, you should pay attention to the lights and traffic ahead so you don't get stuck blocking the box, but you know what? It happens sometimes, no matter how hard you try. We don't go out saying "I can't WAIT to make people walk 10 feet out of the way." (I'm usually thinking "omg omg I really hope a cop isn't here, I don't need this 'blocking the box' ticket right now.')

As for NYC drivers, yes there are jerky ones, and yes there are honk-happy people, but most people are pretty decent drivers. I know - SHOCKING. But true. You just have to know how to deal with the environment and all the input (there is SO MUCH to keep track of while driving here!), and you're good. Otherwise, you're never getting anywhere.

As a commenter upthread said, they should make it so that all 4 crosswalks can walk at the same time so that we don't have to deal with trying to turn through a crosswalk that's being flooded with pedestrians while you have people waiting to go behind you.

You're over "being seen as a heartless evil piece of crap"?

So then, at one time you were into it?

i saw this video then walked outside, walking back home a school bus stopped at a stop sign, waiting for perpendicular traffic running left to right to clear, im crossing parallel to the moving traffic crossing the street and a suv comes up the left side of the school bus to gun in front of the school bus by passing on the left to get ahead at the stop light.

since the bus is larger and higher the guy didnt stop at the sign but stopped only when he almost hit me.

total a-hole move, this is the third time that happened.

all because the guy didnt want to be behind a school bus making frequent stops,

im no saint and im not important in the grand scheme of things but he could have killed a future einstein getting off the bus for the sake of shaving a minute or two off his commute.

What a pussy.

What a stupid and pointless video. Why doesn't NYC make turning right on a red light legal?

forget about rudeness, it's illegal and dozens of people are killed every year...why, only so they can make a mad rush to a stop light?

i live in Hells Kitchen (the worst neighborhood for road ragers), and after giving the finger to a car that nearly ran me over in the crosswalk when i had the right of way, the NJ driver left the car idle, door open on the street, and chased me into a doorman building (video cameras everywhere) and was going to smash my face in...

when are the police going to do something!!

There's nothing especially egregious in that video. It's NYC, deal.

I do prefer Pittsburgh streets though -- no honking and they wait for pedestrians! Good luck with that here though.

I wish I had Streetsblog's backers and underwriters...

www.forgotten-ny.com

Man I guess the other side of this is out on their bikes or walking home from work

Will he STFU already? It's not being rude, it's the outcome of driving in the city. If he wants things "less rude", then run for mayor and have it so that the DOT changes things where the walk/don't walk signs are in sync so cars can easily turn without worrying about pedestrians and then when the sign turns to walk, it's walk in all directions. At first thought it doesn't seem to be more efficient but given that most of the time things get stuck because a car can't make a turn. Have him move to Vegas where they have escalators that lead to pedestrian walk-overs.

This. I never understood why they allowed cars to turn while pedestrians have the walk signal. Only one or two cars can ever turn at a time, and if one car is turning right and one is turning left, nobody gets through the intersection. Seems like a pretty easy fix.

come to san francisco. we dont drive like (such) assholes.

I'm sorry but i grew up in San Francisco and people drive badly there too. If it was as crowded as New York City, it would be as bad as this whiny guy is whining about.

And here I thought asshole driving was a San Francisco specialty.

I'd rather deal with a driver in the crosswalk than listen to that guy.

Most of those cars only have one person (the driver) in them.

This is why we need congestion pricing.

Why doesn't this idiot do a video about all the pedestrians who cross the street on a No Walk signal, or who stand in the street (instead of on the sidewalk) during a No Walk signal. Or who decide to start sprinting across the street just when the light turns green, forcing all cars to wait for them. Welcome to city life. This guy is a square.

Man, that guy has his panties in a knot for nothing.

This is a big metropolitan city. Huge whiner.

Try pulling that whining in Sao Paulo.

i would love to smack the shit outta this guy to show him "rude"..

When you pull that shit and notice a huge scratch across your bumper later, that's me.

In unrelated news, Stephane Tanner is suing this guy for trademark infringement.

this guy has obviously never driven a car in the city or else he'd know traffic would never move if people didnt "nudge" their way through a crosswalk.

What justification is there for driving in the city, if you're an able bodied adult carrying no more than a backpack full of stuff?

yeah, seriously -- i would hate to be driving behind this guy.

That just might be the whiniest 2 minutes in the history of the universe.

What a douche. His next film will be about people who eat Taco Bell and make rude smells come out of their butts as they walk down the manhattan streets. I can see it now, "When you eat Taco Bell you are almost certainly going to engage in rude behavior."

agreed.

come on, none of those drivers hit anyone. but stopping in the crosswalk is dumb. if you're there when the light's turning red, you can make it.

"Not hitting anyone" isn't exactly the metric of decent driving.

I don't know -- I have seen some rude drivers in my time (and have been known to smack a window or two when I was in a bad mood). But this video didn't seem to have anything egregious -- turns are difficult in a city full of pedestrians, but necessary. It's a city. You deal with it.

I think he just maxed out his "How RUDE!" quota till next year. If only he had pearls to clutch

Queens Blvd must be full of rude people