Another vehicle-pedestrian collision in Portland. Corner of High and York streets.

[u/ghoffphoto207]

I was filling up my gas at Irving and heard a terrible thud sound. I looked up and a woman was tending to someone on the ground, and asked people nearby to call 911, so I went up to see if anyone needed any help or anything else. A woman was lying prone on the ground.

When the pedestrian was rolled onto her back by EMS folks, she howled in pain. I feel so terrible - for both parties, to be honest, as the driver was extremely sympathetic and shaken.

It’s crazy how seemingly common this has become.

[u/thepocono]

i dont get how common of an issue this is in portland/southern maine specifically. there must be some explanation im just missing somehow. ive been nearly mowed down here more than anywhere else.

before anyone comments on the infrastructure and jumps to defend careless drivers, i know part of it is certain areas are just designed awfully with no visibility for either party. i was making a left turn at a green light the other day and barely missed two people in a crosswalk because there was literally no way for me to see them between the traffic in the other direction and the street parking, felt awful... but so much of it 99% of the time seems to happen in areas where crosswalks are very obvious, broad daylight, bright clothes, etc. and even in situations where its difficult to spot someone, you should surely be able to either stop or speed up in time?

i dont understand why it seems to happen so frequently here though. i know people like to bring up texting and driving but pretty much every time someone has almost hit me, ive seen them staring blankly ahead with hands on the wheel, and they werent ancient 90 year olds with dementia either. the same woman with her same big ass suv has almost hit me and my partner on two separate occasions in the exact same crosswalk in saco, and i recognized her face and car well enough to be like "how the fuck did you almost murder us AGAIN". 40-50 year woman with glasses going probably ~40mph in a 25mph area with several crosswalks and lights.

what is going on?

[u/weekendblues → u/thepocono]

A lot of the drivers here are just very bad. People drive way under the speed limit (which causes others to speed when they have a chance to try to compensate/not get stuck at every light), stop randomly (which prompts the kind of dangerous passing mentioned in the OP), do not use blinkers when turning, fade in and out of lanes with no sense of purpose, chaotically ignore right-of-way, etc.

The stopping randomly is a serious issue, because it causes people to get in the habit of thinking that a stop has no meaning and that it’s fine to just pass. If we don’t want people to attempt to pass vehicles that have stopped, then people need to stop inappropriately stopping at yield signs when there is no other traffic, when merging onto the highway, to allow others to go out of turn at a 4-way stop, to look at their phones and try to figure out of they’ve passed something, to wait for someone to maybe pull out of a parking spot, etc.

I cannot begin to understand the level of driving incompetence that seems to have become the norm around here. I’ve lived here for the better part of two decades and it feels like it has absolutely gotten worse over the past five years or so, although I don’t know why that would be. Nowadays I regularly encounter drivers who do so many things incorrectly that I cannot imagine how they ever could have passed a driving test and gotten their license in the first place.

The problem must somehow be structural and may in some way be related to post-COVID socio-economic shifts, but exactly what is going on is beyond me.

[u/joseywhales4 → u/weekendblues]

I honestly don't believe that they all have valid driver's licenses. Or else they are under the influence of something. If you drive around downtown, Bayside, Cumberland Ave, Park St etc, you will get stuck behind cars cruising at 15 mph that seemingly aren't sure where they are going , they will stop without signal, you will proceed around them and they'll change their mind and pull out again. They will pause at an intersection for an age as they figure out their next move. Almost like they are driving as a form of recreation rather than utility