Isn't Door Dash Wonderful? Don't We Need More Home Deliveries?

 

This morning, on a very busy-with-speedy-traffic 500 block of State Street,* I watched the most astounding thing.  Was I shocked?  Yes, but only because I witnessed it.  Was I at all surprised it occurred?  No, not one bit!  We live a new, scary and more dangerous world, where certain societal norms and long-standing unwritten rules designed to help us all live happily, safely and coexist are either optional or non-existent.  Vehicles are a huge contributor to the fraying of societal norms, communities and neighborliness, especially the obscene amount of delivery vehicles we must now all live and contend with.  Anyone, it seems, with a car and not one bit of training, can become a delivery driver.  That much was evident this morning on State Street.

 A Door Dash** driver parked his car across the street from his intended delivery address.***  He got out of his (idling) car, closed the front door, opened the driver's side back door, grabbed two bags of things, left his back door wide open, walked across the street, left the items on the porch, took a picture or two of them and began heading back to his car.  2 or 3 cars had passed by his vehicle in that time frame, the drivers doing their best to avoid hitting the delivery driver's open door by moving over to the left outside of the traffic lane.  

The driver then had to wait at least 20 seconds - standing in the street -- to allow several cars to pass by in both directions before he could cross the street to his car.  No cars headed west hit his car's wide-open door, nor did any swerve into oncoming traffic trying to avoid the wide-open door.  But one certainly could have, and the delivery driver would have witnessed the collision directly in front of him from feet away.

Door Dash, indeed!  Make a dash for it, dude, 
before someone slams into your fucking door!
Like a bicyclist who dies instantly!

When the driver finally made his way safely back across the street to his car with the back door still intact and wide open, he then grabbed what looked to be a few plastic jugs of drinking water.  (Thank goodness the door was wide open for him to cut down on delivery time!)  With hands and arms loaded, he turned back, looked both ways and made it back to the other side of the street safely.  He never touched his wide-open car door, nor did he consider closing it, even with a simple nudge from his hip.  He could easily have closed his door, but he chose not to.  It didn't matter to him that it remained wide the fuck open. Both times!  He intentionally left his driver's side rear door open for at least 90 seconds to make a grocery delivery (and make ten dollars?).  For all I know, the delivery driver made a third round trip to complete his delivery, but I was so disgusted by the sight of the wide-open door with traffic swerving around it that I couldn't stick around to watch any more.

Had a Hudson cop passed the delivery vehicle, would 
they have stopped to issue a driving/parking violation ticket?

Anyone who does a fair amount of bicycling in urban areas (including Hudson) where parked vehicles are often inches away knows to fear doors being suddenly opened in front of them.  Ride long enough and you will experience it.  It's a great way to be killed instantly or just never to ride a bicycle or walk again. Bicyclists being DOORED, as it is called, accounts for 10-20 percent of all urban bicycle "accidents."  While I've never been DOORED myself, I've had several close calls, including two or three here in Hudson that might have convinced casual riders to never ride a bike in town again.  As you can imagine (for those of you who don't ride), biking along even at a low speed and suddenly seeing a moving vehicle door headed your way -- or one suddenly in your path -- is horrifying (if you're fortunate enough to notice the door before it's too late).  

The results of being DOORED while riding a bicycle are varied, none of them pretty at all.  Of course, a car door that is left open into a traffic lane and unattended for any amount of time -- intentionally or not -- is also a serious hazard for cyclists, especially on narrow streets such as we have here in Hudson.  Leaving a door open is a dangerous, careless and idiotic thing to do for a number of reasons, mainly having to do with people other than the driver who unthinkingly leaves their door wide the fuck open into the street and walks away.  To be away "for just a second."  Or 90 seconds or more.

*The closure of Harry Howard Avenue has created a lot more traffic on North 6th Street and on State Street.  That's in big part because the city has made no effort to keep traffic off of Harry Howard at Joslen by detouring it to Fairview.  The only DETOUR sign I have come across in the past 4 weeks-plus since the closure is on Harry Howard at Paddock Place, not far from the closure.  By that point, though, the path into and out of (passing through) town via Paddock and several additional streets beyond isn't so much a detour as it's the only option for drivers who have no idea that the entirety of Harry Howard is no longer available until they reach Paddock.  In other words, City Hall and our Common Council members have done nothing to keep additional traffic out of our neighborhoods and vehicles winding their way through town.  The intersection of 6th & State is ridiculously busier these days, with lots of honking horns.  The other day at the intersection, I saw a driver give the finger to the car ahead of it that, as far as I could understand, didn't proceed through the intersection quickly enough for the impatient driver.  On the back of the offending vehicle, facing the bird flipper, was a bumper sticker that read STUDENT DRIVER.

** I use Door Dash as a generic term for delivery services, not knowing if this driver was a Door Dasher.  Door Dash just sums up the scenario I witnessed a whole lot better than ON DEMAND DELIVERY SERVICE, doesn't it?

*** At least this delivery driver didn't drive in the opposing traffic lane to park on the wrong side of the street directly in front of his intended delivery address, a practice that is not at all uncommon these days thanks to delivery services whose drivers don't feel that the rules of the road, safety of others and propriety apply to them.  They're all hustling and in a rush to make a buck.  Parking rules?  What parking rules?  I'm not parking, I'm making a delivery.  Leave me alone -- I've got a shit ton of deliveries to make.