Pedestrian, what were you thinking?

What-Would-You-Do
What-Would-You-Do

So today, great day at work before a long Easter weekend.  Heading out of work, I get in the car, turn on the tunes, fire up a smoke and pull out of my spot.

I need to make a right on to a busy roadway with a bike lane, of course there is also a side walk.  I am in the driveway of the parking lot with my signal on, looks clear on the side walk both ways and I inch forward so I can see the traffic which is hiding behind the bushes.  I see the traffic clearing and inch forward again so I can make sure to see if there are any more cars coming before I take my right turn…all of a sudden there is a girl in front of my car.

SLAM on the brakes…wondering where the fuck she came from, wondering what the fuck she was doing walking in front of a car that was well over the side walk that she had to walk in the bike lane to be in front of me.  She had absolutely no eye contact with me, what was she thinking?

I opened my window and said I was sorry, I hadn’t seen her, is she ok?  I’m pretty sure I bumped her with the car, not hard as I had only just taken my foot off the brake to inch forward a bit.  She waves it off and kept walking.  I admit, I should have looked right again to see the side walk but the way the parking lot is designed, it has an embankment with many lovely bushes to block my view, I am not certain I would have seen her even with the second look.

Is it wrong of me to expect the pedestrian to make eye contact before walking in front of my car?  I jaywalk and walk across driveways all the time but I always make sure that if I cross a driveway with a car waiting to turn I make eye contact with the driver so I know they see me.  I’m also aware of traffic on roads & figure I would know when a car was going to make it’s move to do their turn.  Is this me being extremely paranoid about getting hit by a car or common sense that I should know the driver of a motor vehicle sees me?

Super freaky scenario though, so many ways that could have gone bad for her and for me.  I don’t want to hit someone with my car, that would be just the most horrible thing ever!

Should pedestrians be taking more care when walking in places where there is traffic?  Is it ok to just cross the street in the middle of traffic and expect that they will stop because you are a pedestrian?  Should I be texting and walking and make an assumption that the people driving the car will see me and stop?

Am I expecting to much of pedestrians?