The Escalator-thing makes me STABBY!, it is MOVING you mouth-breathing waste-of-skin! I used to try to be polite about folks who stop at the top or bottom but anymore I just run into them (and hope that if/when they get knocked down they will learn to move out of the way!).
Unclviny
Backing in is default in Japan. If you always do it you get quite good at it and it doesn’t take very long - most people can nail it first time every time. I think the rationale (if there is one) is that backing in first means that it’s easier for you to pull out (into possible oncoming traffic) with a better field of view. Better to pull out into traffic going forward that to back out into it. Whereas when you back into a parking lot, there’s going to be no traffic other than possible foot traffic.
Do you or have you ever had a child? I have, and although she was a well-behaved child for the most part, having her in a harness with me on the other end of it got her accustomed to the notion that she couldn’t just zoom off when she wanted to. She didn’t need the harness for very long, but it was damned handy when she was a toddler. In fact, my husband and I were out this evening, and at the restaurant there was a kid who was constantly zooming around the place. He was about 3 or 4, and he needed a lot more restraint than his mother was willing to give him. It was a barbecue joint, the kind where you get a tray and take it to your table. Mom couldn’t be bothered to either let someone carry her tray to the table or to keep track of her kid until she had everything set up. I’d MUCH rather see that kid in a harness, learning that he can’t just treat the restaurant like a playground. This particular place didn’t have servers carrying hot plates of food around, but he was still a menace.
And I had to firmly remove him from investigating the contents of my purse.
I don’t usually mind if people pass me when I’m walking. I also don’t mind if people want to walk slowly, as long as there’s some room for me to pass them at my own speed. I can even work out what to do when two of us get to a door or gate at the same time.
BUT I do really get cranked at people who speed up to pass me, or suddenly lunge ahead to get to the door/gate/escalator/subway car before I do…THEN slow down. Go fast or slow and we’ll sort it out, but don’t take the spot in front of me and then drop anchor!
Recently a woman passed me from behind and scurried in front of me as I approached the Metro train door – then suddenly lost speed like a becalmed galleon, and strolled with deliberate calmness toward the door, which closed, and the train left, stranding me only because I’d been too polite to shoulder her aside and insist on not letting her displace me.
Wow. I’m not sure I would have been able to stop myself from swatting him across the nose like a naughty puppy and yelling, “Get your paws off my shit, you dirty little monkey!”
Just happened today. Went to Wendy’s to buy my lunch. The guy after me had a coupon for a free order of nuggets and the cashier politely informs him that it’ll be another 4 minutes on those. Customer’s attitude, which was quite friendly to start, grumpifies. He looks at the cashier with contempt and takes his coupon without a word and leaves.
I would hate to see him in a fine dining establishment.
People who needlessly stand by the doors on public transit.
There are plenty of seats. You are clearly in it for the long haul. Of all places, why are the two of you standing immediately in front of the exit doors, leaving a 7" space between you as the only means of egress? Get the hell out of the way, you oblivious meatbags! Seriously, it’s a big bus and you make a beeline for the one place you will cause the most inconvenience, short of the driver’s lap.
How about people who get on buses or other public transits, and then don’t get their money/tickets out before they get in the door, and spend 15 minutes holding up the line while they root through their pockets trying to dig up the right amount of change.
“Wanna have an affair, lady?”
“What!?”
“I said, you oughtta have your fare ready!”
I got it! I likewise back my van into small spaces because of the wheelbase–there’s only about two feet in front of the front wheels but about twelve feet behind them and pulling into a space, especially a narrow one, is a real bitch in a long rectangular vehicle like that. Chances are very good I will have to get halfway in, then back out to straighten it, then pull forward again and it will take a LOT more time that way than if I just back straight in–which I can do incredibly quickly and accurately, because the directional wheels are then at the BACK of all that wheelbase and it will zip right on in there. Couple that with the fact that my vehicle is overall 16’ long and most people are pretty happy that I have the overhang at the back deployed over the curb and the front ain’t sticking out in the aisle like it would be if I pull through frontways and only have the very short front space hanging over the curb. Another advantage is that when I park backed in my driver’s side door is on the same side as the guy next to me, so I can leave plenty room for both of us to get in and out, whereas if I pull in frontways in those narrow ass spots neither one of us has much room to maneuver our butts into our cars. Yes, passengers will be a tad inconvenienced but there’s a dead certainty every other car has a driver, but only a percentage chance it has a passenger as well, so the numbers say that backing in a big vehicle is to the greatest advantage of everyone.
“'Ere, miss, stick a feather in yer bum?”
Right now my peeve are people who won’t let the bag on the bus seat or the car pulling through the next parking space issues go 
And it’s not like they’re new to the concept of riding a bus, either - these are daily commuters/students you’re talking about (I assume, if they’re the same in your city as mine). The bus driver yelling, “MOVE TO THE BACK OF THE BUS!” every ten minutes, every friggin’ day is a futile effort to teach you yahoos how to ride a crowded bus, not just give you a suggestion that expires as soon as this trip is over.
Considering that the kid (and his mother and aunt) was black, most of the customers in the restaurant were black, and my husband and I were two of the five white customers in the restaurant at the time…I don’t think that calling him a “dirty little monkey” would have been the wisest move.
Regarding strollers - two things;
People that are obnoxious with strollers are those that were obnoxious without strollers a they just now have a new weapon to be obnoxious with.
People who go out of their way to be ignorant to people with strollers just to be obnoxious. I was at the mall a couple of weeks ago and watched an obnoxious cow of a thing purpously block the path of a woman with a (medium sized) stroller just to be a bitch. Finally cow woman’s friends had to tell her to move so stroller woman could get by to have lunch with her husband.
I predict that cow woman in the second example will turn into douche stroller user in the first example as soon as she has children.
A pet peeve of mine that’s been bothering me extra-special these last few days is the way my brain jumps at misspellings. Cut it out, you stupid brain! It’s not like you spell perfectly yourself, damnit!
I think it happens more when I’m nervous. Not the noticing the mistakes, but the fact that instead of being a mild “oh, ah typo” it’s more of an “aaaaargh! my eyes!” 
Stupid brain…
I recently went to a fast food place and ordered the barbeque special, helpfully listed as “menu number 6” on the picture-menu display that hangs above the servers’ heads. The box I got was labeled as something else, but that happens often, and more so with the specials. You order the special, get a box labeled “nuggets”, but it contains the special.
Only, this one didn’t contain any barbequed anything, it had the advertised chicken. I looked at the ticket and it said “6 chicken”. While this wasn’t particularly offensive to me personally, I figured I’d warn them. I didn’t accept the offer to make it up, but I’d like to know who thinks it’s a good idea to change the number coding of dishes every time the menu changes, and to have different numbers on the menu and in the POS. I’d find it confusing too!
and then you have those who dutifully pick up said pile’o’crap, stuff it in the small black plastic bag and promptly deposit the bag in the middle of the nearest driveway :smack:
Hey, stoopid! Dog shit is biodegradable. Plastic ain’t.
She needs killin’. I’ve never had that happen, but I do hate the people who step onto the train and then just stop to look around. I know you want a seat, but you can’t just stand here until you spot one. Pick a direction, move in it, and hope for the best.
I habitually move to stand right in the doorway, once the train leaves the stop before mine. That’s because the exit off the platform at my stop is a clusterfuck, and if I’m the first one off, I can haul ass down the stairs and not get caught in it. Of course, the operative phrase here is ‘haul ass’. I hate people who stand in the doorway and then FAIL to haul ass. Why is it so important to you to be the first person off the train, if you’re not in a hurry?
Has anyone mentioned dipshits who try to bum rush the elevator/train (not that I take trains, but I hear it happens on them too) before the people on the elevator/train have gotten off? And, of course, the give you dirty looks when you try to leave, they are blocking your way, and they then have to back up a bit so you can, you know…get out.
I won’t do it to a stranger on first try, but when one of my relatives blocks the way and I’m behind them, I push them. Hard. “But I wasn’t stopping, I was only slowing down!” is not an acceptable excuse.
As I grow older and more shameless, I expect I will eventually become a Little Murderous Old Lady pushing other folk out of the way whether they have the misfortune to be related to me or not.