Sidewalk Rage

I've got some unresolved anger issues. Every time I go walking in Barra, I want to take a baseball bat or golf club with me and help car owners understand that sidewalks aren't for parking and pedestrian crossings aren't just pretty decorations and that red lights in the daytime really DO mean stop and that they shouldn't blow through them while kindly honking their horns to let us know that we are in the way. It's a daily problem.

Take this scenario:

There's about eight inches of space on the actual sidewalk. Then you hit a slight ramp before reaching a step...so my stroller hand to be lifted at an angle up and over. Because these kind souls parked on the entire stretch of sidewalk and didn't want their cars hanging in the street, those of us with wheels had to either walk into oncoming traffic to get around or find an extra pair of hands to get up onto car-proofed ground. Made me so hopping mad (the proverbial straw...), that I made a spectacle, pretended to smash the car with the stroller and then found my camera and took photos. Because I am just SO mature like that.

I even got their license plate number.

Why can't Rio figure out that fining people who break laws already on the books is a great way to put more money into corrupt pockets? Enforcement. A novel concept. I don't care WHERE the fines go. I just want to live in a city where I'm not terrified to cross the street and where moms don't have to teach their children "to never be the first one to cross the road at a crossing....so that in the likely event that someone gets run over by a bus running a red light, it isn't going to be them..." (Actual quote!)



Barring the baseball bat scenario, which is probably ill-advised and might get me shot, I thought of something more subtle:

Sadly, Ben-Hur style wheel ripper adornments aren't really common stroller accessories. Dang! So think I'll go for a slightly-less damaging way of expressing my disgust. These:

 Or possibly fake key marks. Something to inflict a little psychological torture on the louts who have no respect for pedestrians, strollers or the handicapped. It probably wouldn't change any behaviors...but oh, the cathartic release I'd feel...