We have those little (or big) strip malls with access roads running alongside the main road, all over. I was going to a small bike dealer and turned onto one of those access roads to get to it (25 slow), and a guy just stepped off the grass right in front of me without looking. I braked hard and just tapped the horn, but he jumped a foot (I clearly scared him.... fair is fair, he scared me too).
I motored down to the bike shop and was talking with the counter guy and two other riders when low and behold the guy I honked at had walked all the way down to the shop and inside, to ask that I apologize to him for scaring him with my horn, He was an immigrant (not Hispanic, maybe Hindu) and was very polite about it, but insistent.
I was also polite and explained that he was the one who owed an apology for walking out into the road without looking; that with no crosswalk, I had the right of way under VA law and he should always look before stepping off to save his own life. He didn't get it, and became more insistent I apologize (I now decided he had a bit of PTSD from the Stebel Nautilus)
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Now the counter guy and other riders jumped in loud and angry and started to berate the guy and repeat what I had said, an made to bodily carry him out of the store (like a bum's rush and maybe a few punches to boot). I said hold on guys, watch this.....
Then I bent at the waist and bowed a little and said I was so sorry I scared him and I hope that made him feel better. He lit up with a huge smile and thanked me for my apology and offered his hand, and I shook it, and he turned and left.
The other guys were now mad at me, and I told them if they weren't ready to do the poor (tiny) man violence, I might not have, but it cost me nothing, didn't bother my pride one bit, and it was the easiest way to solve the little dilemma. They disagreed, and now THEY didn't get it.
I should have been Secretary of State. But sadly I have no foundation to fund.
I have many more interesting stories about pedestrians and driving in the Middle East, but I'll spare you.
Except, I was in a cab that hit a kid maybe 12yo and knocked him on his ass (slow like 10mph). The cabbie got out and asked the kid if he was OK, and he said he was fine, whereupon the cabbie started to kick the poor kid while he was still down, yelling that he was going to cost him his cabbie license and livelihood, and his family would starve (the Turks tend to always blame the driver because they have more money than pedestrians who generally go a lifetime with no personal car). Despite the apparent injustice of kicking the kid, I laughed my azz off on that one. (When in Rome...) During my tours there, the figure was around 90 pedestrians killed by cars each month (nationwide).
