As soon as other people go out of their front door and walk onto the street, or get in their cars or on public transport, and go in shops and pubs and restaurants, they seem to think they have a right to behave in the most appalling and unsocial ways. For a Friday topic, I was wondering what selfish, annoying public behaviour gets up your nose and gets your goat?
Here’s one or two of my bugbears:
When you’re in your car at a traffic lights, people who decide to cross the road just after the light’s turned green.
People who walk out of Tube stations / off escalators, and immediately stop to look around at where they are, oblivious to the logjam they’ve caused behind them.
Parents who watch their children throw rubbish on the floor and don’t make them pick it up.
Women who stop for a gossip at the end of the supermarket aisle with 2 massive trolleys and five kids blocking the way for anyone just going about their business, who look at you as if you just nicked their handbag if you try and get past.
People who get on a bus at New York City’s Port Authority bus terminal and start asking the bus driver where the bus goes. There’s only about 1,000 bus information stations in the two block Port Authority Bus terminal, and half of them are in the terminal that only services New Jersey. But nooooooooo, they have to hold up the entire bus to find out from a bus driver which bus they should take.
Let’s see…Use of cell phones, of course…letting children run wild…walking slowly or blocking aisles…yelling to others from a distance…
Oh, this is it. Playing music so loudly in your car that it causes me physical pain to be at the same intersection. Loud-Music-Person, I want you dead!
Yes! But it happens to me more often on narrow pavements since I’m a particularly fast walker. Sometimes I just feel like clotheslining them from behind
dragon, hehe sorry. I can call you dragon right, since we’re on a last name basis?
When you go out to eat with a group of people… and one person in yoru group is incredibly rude to the waiter/waitress… and you get to think about the spit that you are most likely eating all night…
-PDAs (public displays of affection), and I don’t mean hand-holding or hugging. I mean serious tonsil-hockey, bumping and grinding - “bedroom behavior”.
-people who don’t turn their cell-phone ringer off OR who talk on their cell phones in movie theaters.
“People who get on a bus at New York City’s Port Authority bus terminal and start asking the bus driver where the bus goes.”
—Ummm, actually, I do this, because the DeCamp Bus Line (“are fives miles long”) never have the correct info posted at the gate. There are no dispatchers, the bus schedules posted are out of date and incorrect, and damn right I’m going to ask the driver if this bus goes to my town. Half the time their answer is, “no, you want five gates over,” so it’s a damn good thing I do ask!
-people who talk on their cell phones in line at the store, and then proceed to finish their conversations before they will complete the transaction.
-people who get upset at something, like an item out of stock, and then proceed to blast the poor cashier, screaming about how they will never shop there again because the store doesn’t care about peoples needs.
Don’t these people realize how childish they are being?
I’ll agree with that one. There was a couple outside my office window doing just that. We (as in my office mates and I) we sorely tempted to give them points
Well it’s more work related than public related, but people who have perfectly good offices and conference rooms, but find the hallway or doorway by the stairs to be an acceptable meeting place, effectively blocking the way for anyone trying to get around them.
Fingernail clipping is also one of those things that really ought to be done at home as the clippers invariably leave their clippings on the floor or worse, on the train seat for some unwary person to sit on and get poked by. And the noise! It just stands every cell in my body on end and makes me want to bitchslap that person into next week.
People that don’t understand the “stand on the right, walk on the left” rule of people-movers and escalators.
People who don’t hold a line when walking. Pick a path and stick with it, dammit! Don’t zigzag all over the sidewalk because I? Walk fast. And you? Are in my way.
Also, people who stand at bus stops and inhale a pack of cigarettes, then get on the bus and stink it up. Look, I get that you can smoke outside. I’m fine with that–more power to you. But if you know you’ll be taking public transportation, and that you’ll be crammed cheek-to-jowl with other passengers, could you maybe tone down the tabacky? 'Cause you, sir, reek of cigarettes, and it’s unpleasant.
Cell phones really get to me too – especially when they are used in areas where there are signs clearly stating “No Cell Phone Use.” This is particularly specific to the public so to speak, but using the cell phone while in a clinic – especially if you don’t hang up the phone when the student/nurse/doctor is trying to examine you/start a history – is bad. I particularly resent when a casual conversation is heard and I’m told “to come back when I’m done with my call.”
I also dislike groups of individuals who walk abreast in such a manner that no one can pass down the hallway in the opposite direction or pass from behind.
