Anyone else have encounters with rude pedestrians?
Rant #1: I’m walking down the sidewalk. I happen to be positioned towards the curb side. You are walking towards me, and are on the side AWAY from the curb. Do not move towards the curb side, and then expect me to get out of your way. I swear people actually do this. WHAT ON EARTH would possess you to deliberately change your path so as to collide with someone?
Rant #2: Again I am walking down the sidewalk. You and two of your bestest buddies are coming the other way, walking shoulder to shoulder so as to block the entire sidewalk. Pretend for a second that you have a functioning neocortex, and try to figure out what is going to happen in about 5 seconds. Yes, believe it or not, the molecules in both of our bodies will not be able to pass through each other. Perhaps you could move out of the way at some point BEFORE we are standing face-to-face, immobilized, you stupid fuck. I mean, it’s great that you showed me how you’re the Alpha Dog and everything, but you STILL had to move eventually, because you and your brain-dead buddies literally left me no possible way to avoid you, short of jumping seven feet in the air.
I’ve come to the conclusion that people do not know how to be pedestrians anymore.
Think about it: we’re in a car society. Most people drive where they need to go, and so rarely ever walk somewhere.
So when you’re toodling around South Lake Tahoe like I and scoutboy were a few weeks ago, you realize how many times people walk 3-4 abreast on a sidewalk, never making any effort to move to the side to let you pass by.
People - rules of the road apply on the sidewalk too!!!
I think because my hobby is running (and hence I’m a pedestrian out in the world 5-6 times a week) I’m very much in tune with this - and very aware of those who aren’t.
After I’ve walked to the public library, I can’t resist reading while I walk on the way home. All those shiny new books and all. I try not to walk into people, but sometimes I glance up and notice them walking around me with alarmed looks on their faces.
So to all of you I’ve done this to, I apologize. I don’t mean to be rude. I know I should look where I’m going. But look! It’s the latest Terry Pratchett novel! You don’t really expect me to wait five whole blocks before I start it, do you?
People don’t know how to be pedestrians anymore, because of cars, no kidding. :rolleyes:
I mean, when I was living in Kent, Ohio, there was this narrow one-lane road through the woods, right? Lots of college students walking this way and that on the edge of the road, right? You would think they would walk on the left side of the road facing the traffic so they would stand a chance, however slim, of taking evasive action and saving life and limb if they saw a car coming at them. Right?
<John Belushi>But NOOOooooo…</JB>
They always walk on the right side of the road, with their backs to the traffic! Just asking for it! Hey, numbskulls, just because cars stay to the right doesn’t mean pedestrians should! Au contraire, in fact!
I’ve always been of the opinion that malls and grocery stores should have lines painted down the middle of every aisle, akin to the double yellow line on a road. Keep to your own side, and only cross over to the other side (i.e. to enter a store, or look at something on the far side of the aisle) when there’s no traffic coming the other way.
Life would be so much simpler, and I would have much less rage simmering just below the surface every time I’m forced to shop.
I used to try to be nice to people, and get out of the way when some clueless nitwit was paying more attention to their phone than to where they were going. Not any more.
I don’t go out of my way to collide with them, I just stay where I am. On at least five occasions, I’ve had people walk straight into me, heads down, reading their email, while I was standing in line. Observing their behavoir, I’ve noticed something interesting about them.
We’ve all zoned out on occasion and bumped into something or someone because we weren’t paying attention. Usually, though, all it takes is that first contact to snap us back to reality. Not these people. In every case, they’ve hit me with their phones first, and then kept walking forward until they had plastered themselves against my chest and the slightest belly bounce on my part would have been enough to put them on their asses. It was if they simply expected everyone else to always get out of their way.
When I read the title I figured this would be a thread about pedestrians managing to be assholes when crossing streets (and it’s certainly possible!). Well then, my thoughts on the topic at hand:
I think there are way too many people out there who treat others simply as obstacles to be avoided. Like a chair, or perhaps a dog.
Actually, animals seem to be a fair parallel for the regard I see some folks give to other pedestrians. Dogs will get out of your way, and won’t take offense if you suddenly stop or change direction. Or if you simply plow through not even bothering to see and avoid collision-course situations. I see an attitude of utter dismissal towards other people that really pisses me off.
Yeah, well how do you explain the fact that people in general drive like shit as well? Like that motherfucker today who was all pissed because I was on a bicycle hindering their progress to the red fucking light just ahead.
Well, at least they keep to the side of the road. I know I’ve seen a few people walking in the middle of the lane, at night, in the rain, wearing black, on fairly busy roads, with their backs to traffic. And it’s not like there isn’t a sidewalk right fucking next to the road. I don’t understand how these people have survived so long.
As for the phenomena in the OP, yeah, that shit sucks as well. I really don’t understand how so many people become so damn clueless about the world around them. And I can’t really claim much highground here. I’ve tripped over a fire hydrant before. But even I’m not as bad as these people who simply don’t understand that you are supposed to avoid walking into other pedestrians.
Yeah, well how do you explain the fact that people in general drive like shit as well? Like that motherfucker today who was all pissed because I was on a bicycle hindering their progress to the red fucking light just ahead.
Well, at least they keep to the side of the road. I know I’ve seen a few people walking in the middle of the lane, at night, in the rain, wearing black, on fairly busy roads, with their backs to traffic. And it’s not like there isn’t a sidewalk right fucking next to the road. I don’t understand how these people have survived so long.
As for the phenomena in the OP, yeah, that shit sucks as well. I really don’t understand how so many people become so damn clueless about the world around them. And I can’t really claim much highground here. I’ve tripped over a fire hydrant before. But even I’m not as bad as these people who simply don’t understand that you are supposed to avoid walking into other pedestrians.
#1: Maybe they have that “Pass to the right” idea so ingrained that they go out of their way to do so.
#2: This sounds like a manifestation of “The Sidewalk Game”, where you nonchalantly continue on your way to see who will move to the side first. Like Chicken.
I live on a very busy suburb road, that unfortunately does not have sidewalks. I see a lot of kids walking to the nearby conveniences store who were never taught which side of the road to walk on. I’m always worried that someone is going to plow into them right outside my window. And then there’s the kids on bikes who weave in and out of the center dots. That terrifies me, considering the number of high school kids who go flying down that road.
Hmmm…maybe. I’ll try to make a note of which way they move next time. Seems pretty stupid, though. If you are both already heading on paths where you won’t collide, why move?
#2: This sounds like a manifestation of “The Sidewalk Game”, where you nonchalantly continue on your way to see who will move to the side first. Like Chicken.
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Yep, except they are leaving you no option to even get out of their way, short of diving into the street.
I have a big problem with Pedestrians, I live in a college town, so Main Street, Pedestrians can stroll around to their whim, in or out of the crosswalk, they can cross the street in front of you whether you have the green light or not, I can not do a F-ing thing to them, they have the right of way.
To make it worse, I work in Wilmington, DE, probably the biggest cities in DE (no cracks about the size of the state), Pedestrians will cross the street, just as the light turns green, IT’S MY TURN
TO GO ASSHOLE, but do they get out of the way, so I can go, they go extra slow. I would love to make one of these people into a smear on the pavement, but No, that would be wrong.
And on another tangent, making a turn into oncoming traffic when my light turns green, HEY DICKWEED, haven’t you heard
the term yeild to oncoming traffic.
My office is just west of two commuter train stations and the public transit train station I use to get home is east of them. Since most of the people who use the commuter trains work east of the train station, I am generally doing an impersonation of a salmon swimming upstream as soon as I pass the commuter trains. I’ve taken to periodically shouting, “I didn’t know this was a one-way sidewalk” as I am being practically forced off the curb of a fifteen-foot wide sidewalk by clueless fuckwits who can’t seem to grasp the concept that somebody might be walking in the other direction.
I once had my glasses knocked off and nearly stepped on, and I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve been hit by briefcases and gym bags. Then there was the twit who had to assert his alpha male status by turning around a hitting me in the back of the head when I didn’t walk into a lamppost to avoid him.
blowero, your Rant #2 reminds me of that scene in Eyes Wide Shut (and in Traumnovelle, the story it was based on), in which the drunk fratboys on the sidewalk behaved exactly as you described — and then deliberately shoved the doctor off the sidewalk, slamming him into a parked car, and jeering at him. Just to be assholes. That scene gave me the creeps, more than the many other scenes that were intended to give viewers the creeps. I remember thinking, Good thing I’ve never seen that happen in real life. Now your post makes it all too uncomfortably real.
See, there are very,very few sidewalks in my city, probably because it’s so spread out.
Sometimes when coming home from my classes, I’ll get stuck behind a schoolbus that goes down my road every day. It will let off a group of about 15 kids at a corner and they will all procede to walk down the middle of the goddamned street until they get to their houses. Nevermind that I’m sitting there in my car right behind them driving 2 MPH. Or that there are cars coming in the opposite direction, so I can’t drive around them.
They hear me sitting there right behind them as they walk, yet they don’t even turn their heads, let alone move off the road. There may not be a sidewalk, but there’s a strip of grass that they could easily step aside onto. Hell, I walk on that same strip of grass the whole way whenever I have to walk down that street. It feels better on my feet. Unfortunately, these inconsiderate motherfucking ninnies think they’re too damn good to step into the grass (or even move closer to the side of the road) for half a second while I drive by.
I don’t know about the rest of you guys, but when I was a kid my parents told me to stay the hell out of the street!
Why? Because you might get hit by a car, you STUPID FUCK!