You should have been better prepared. Your lack of preparation does not make an emergency for anyone else.

So, what? ALL people in need of help could have been better prepared in one way or another. That's exactly the lame-ass "it's not my problem" attitude that's wrong with our society.

Could you have called someone? Usually shitty strip malls have a security service that's like, one bored fat guy in a Dodge Aries waiting for something to REACT TO. That guy normally has one of those window unlocky things and stuff for changing tires.

Also though you should TOTALLY get the least expensive one year membership to AAA you can find. It's only like $30, you will probably never use it, and as soon as you get it you'll realize the piece of mind is worth hundreds of dollars and you will start subscribing to it annually. Eventually you're going to drive your car into a ditch or get a flat and you'll be happy that you have it.

Do you have a cell phone? Did you really just stand there? Was it dangerous for you to walk anywhere? How did you expect the situation to improve?

I had the same thing happen a couple of years ago. It's the whole "someone else will help" mentality. It happens in areas with lots of people. Sorry though, that sucks.

What little driving I do here in Seattle occurs behind the wheel of a car that, due to an electrical problem, requires me to pop the hood and disconnect the battery every time I park it. People often ask if I need assistance. Most recently this happened in the parking lot of the Post Office at 23rd & Union. That is an area with lots of people.

I suspect that Lynwood, like many suburbs, is an area with lots of people who'd rather not interact with other people.

Westy,

Through a stroke of luck, a woman in the same parking lot was already waiting for a tow truck, one that took over an hour to arrive. Once he got there, I used his tire iron.

What upsets me is not so much that people didn't approach me and offer help (as nice as that would have been) but that people avoided or ignored me when I tried to approach them.

And one time....at band camp...

Actually it was around Greenlake. My Jeep had a flat tire while i was driving. I was changing it myself, and got the flat tire off but then shitty-ass little jack that comes with the car (which it seems was made for a Fiesta, not a Cherokee) kept collapsing under the weight of the vehicle before I could crank it high enough to get the spare tire on.

So I left the jeep resting on the brake cylinder (tire on ground beside) to hike around the lake to a pay phone to call fucking Chrysler roadside service.

When I walked back I was amazed to find some dude in a pickup truck who had seen the situation and stopped to help. He had already pulled a hydraulic floor jack out of his truck, jacked up my Jeep, and mounted the spare tire. I walked up to him to thank him and he just said.."I saw your problem...those dinky little jacks that come with the Jeep are never enough to do the job."

He got back in his truck and just said "Do something nice for someone else sometime. Have a good day".

Talk about your "Pay it Forward" experience!

This is actually a documented social psych thing -- you're more likely to get help if there's only one person around than if there are many, because of the distribution of responsibility ("someone else will help, I'm sure").

Still sucks tho. As does, um, Lynnwood.

Yeah, people are jerk-faces.

And don't give your money to AAA, who use it to lobby for pro-road-construction, anti-mass-transit legislation every chance they get.

Try these guys instead.

I totally get what you're saying. Even if they can't help it's shitty for people to avoid or ignore someone in trouble. Yeah, them's the suburbs for you.

Seriously, think about AAA! It's an inexpensive lifesaver!

please, in the suburbs, if you don't have a tire iron, cell phone, or AAA you qualify as a crazy sketchy person who no one would willingly let talk to them. do you talk to the crackheads who approach you on capital hill? you were in their same category.

Hey Dingle,

Let me see if I've got this straight: you equate needing a tire iron with being high on crack? are you really that jaded?

i did not equate it, i made an analogy

crackead is to capital hill as wierdo with a shitty car is to suburbs.

you are an outlier at the lowest level of the surrounding community.

I hate to break it to you, but making an analogy is the same as making an equation. And I think your analogy is backwards: a guy with a flat is in the city is the same as a jabbering crackhead is in the suburbs.