Jump to content

Learn How to Walk Before You Talk


House Balstroko

Recommended Posts

12 minutes ago, Isis said:

I almost missed a train home tonight because a couple, walking side by side up the steps onto the platform slowed down to a crawl as the neared the top of the flight so as they could stare around them, blocking anyone else from getting into the platform. Zero concern for anyone's needs.

I am embossed reminded a little of Lynn Truss (author of Eats, Shoots and Leaves) here, who wrote an article about 'making public spaces private'. It's something that stayed with me. I think it's true that people do this more and more - they behave as if they are in their own homes when they are in shared public spaces: they have very loud personal phone conversations, blare music from their shitty Apple headphones, or even play music straight out of their phone without headphones, they sing, they occupy way more space than they need, they vape every-bloody-where, they eat strong smelling foods, and leave their litter behind for someone else to pick up.

We have laws about littering in the UK. I don't know why they aren't enforced, seems like a simple way to make some money out of people behaving badly. I honestly cannot imagine just dropping an empty can on the floor of a bus then getting off, yet I see small children travelling with their parents do it. The parents say nothing. Clearly, the whole floor is just one big bin to them. 

 

I hate playing music so loud I cam hear it through headphones or the playing it directly from the phone for the world to hear. I once had a foreign tourist physically move me out of the way so he could get to the railing on the Staten Island Ferry. I came so close to asking whether or not he'd appreciate me doing that in his city, but I really wanted to hit him. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Public spaces require mutual cooperation/courtesy/respect, but infringements are too minor to police.  We try to use social policing like minor shaming -- sighing, tutting, eye-rolling, or occasionally "Excuse me, can I walk past?" or "You dropped something over there" -- but these have little impact on people who are already ignoring the social compact.  The worst offenders in the past have been people who don't feel part of that local social compact, e.g. tourists or disaffected citizens, but it's becoming more prevalent as society generally withdraws from real-space social participation in favor of virtual social participation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, Theda Baratheon said:

Aye. I hate littering. People just leaving their rubbish anywhere when there are BINS RIGHT OUTSIDE....people leaving coffee cups and crisp packets on train seats when every train station has BINS!!! I don't get it!!

Most trains have bins too! These people walk straight past them as they get off. It would take hardly any effort to throw their rubbish in the bin as they pass. It's absolutely disgusting to me that people behave this way.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I basically spend all day every day being enraged by people being for want of a better word 'cunts'.  It seems to me that it comes down to people nowadays thinking that their inconvenience is more important than everyone else's inconvenience. Example, last night cycling home from work i missed 2 sets of traffic lights because some total arsehole was trying to turn right where there was no right turn, the reason there was no right turn is that there is no opportunity because traffic never stops long enough to get across the junction, did this fucking arsehole decide to try a different route?  No, they just sat there in the middle of the road inconveniencing hundreds of people.  Thankfully being on a bike you can eventually zip round the traffic, knock on the window and call them a 'fucking selfish arsehole' and zip off.  

Another example, the communal bins where i live are along a wall so over the week you have to walk further and further to find the empty ones, do people do that, no, they just fucking drop it on the floor at the entrance to the fucking bins, or put it on top of an overflowing one so that it falls off, so then fucking foxes and pigeons become a fucking menace, tear the shit up and leave rubbish everywhere. 

Even a trip to MacDonalds can drive me to distraction, don't sit at a table without food when someone else is in the queue so that people who actually have food have to wonder around waiting for a table, fucking pricks. 

I am constantly telling people to turn that fucking shit music off when they play it through their phone on the bus, pick up your fucking rubbish etc.  

Schools need to start teaching children from 4 how to be human beings.  Because it is clear that parents don't.  You should be socialised before you get educated 'today children we are going to learn why eating a donner kebab on a tube makes you an arsehole'.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

55 minutes ago, Isis said:

Most trains have bins too! These people walk straight past them as they get off. It would take hardly any effort to throw their rubbish in the bin as they pass. It's absolutely disgusting to me that people behave this way.

It IS disgusting because it comes down to sheer LAZINESS and apathy and not giving a shit about about anyone else...it can't be excused...there is no legit reason people would litter...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do understand (a bit) if there is literally no bin. For years this was the case at stations (in case someone put a bomb in one) but on a train you walk right past one to get off. So there is no excuse. I have to admit that I rarely ask people to pick up their litter as I'm often concerned about violent retaliation.

BFC, you should watch Sightseers. Not least because it's a great film, but also because you'd love the opening scene as it features a littering incident.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, House Balstroko said:

I appreciate all of your contributions to this thread, but i feel a you are missing the big picture. My original post is about how all these issues affect our ability to progress as a society. If we as a society are unwilling to take basic steps to create a mutually beneficial environment, then how can we except to improve upon global issues.

I do tend to walk faster than the general public. And there are many many people that in my eyes don't even try to move properly in public space, but is the problem with me or with them - or somewhere in between?  However, until I am truly ready to accept all the people in my way, and don't get irritated by people bringing strollers to a crowded market I am not truly fit for a mutually beneficial environment.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 22/10/2016 at 11:32 AM, MercurialCannibal said:

Bfc, 

Have you considered arresting these people?  

i'm not really a very 'arresty' person, i think i've nicked about 3 people in 10 years, also off duty arrests are a right ball ache. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/21/2016 at 9:59 AM, Ormond said:

I think some of these complaints about walking may be a bit selfish.

As for "walking at a snail's pace" -- how do you know that any particular person can comfortably walk faster? And why does that matter? There are plenty of people who have physical conditions that make it difficult for them to walk quickly, and many of those are not obvious to an observer. You don't have to be walking with a cane to be experiencing pain in your ankles or knees in a way that will slow down your walking.

The standing in front of elevators and in the middle of escalator steps is most often the result of being preoccupied with other things and so not paying enough attention to one's environment, which can happen to all of us. It is not usually a matter of being deliberately rude and seems rather overblown to me to say it's a "lack of ethics." Why can't others just say "excuse me" to remind these people to move?

As for complaining about people holding hands -- wow, that seems awfully curmudgeonly to me. Maybe the problem we should be working on in society is to slow down the overly fast pace of modern life so that people aren't in such a rush to get somewhere that they are bothered by having people holding hands on the sidewalk? I often find that people who are in a big hurry are the ones actually most likely to be unintentionally rude because they are not paying attention to how their actions are affecting others around them.

Hm, what was brought to mind to me with the snail's pace comment is people who are sightseeing or playing with their phone and meandering left to right effectively blocking the sidewalk with unpredictable motion.  Not a person who is simply moving slowly.  Tourists are a NIGHTMARE for foot traffic here.  They pay no attention to their surroundings and block sidewalks, entrances, exits and aisles in stores.  They wander into traffic without looking. The urge to scream "MOVE!" gets overwhelming.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2016-10-23 at 9:26 PM, BigFatCoward said:

i'm not really a very 'arresty' person, i think i've nicked about 3 people in 10 years, also off duty arrests are a right ball ache. 

OMG no, I feel like my world view is ruined. I thought you ran around all day shouting "YOU'RE NICKED" like they do on TV. I am extremely disappointed.

 

EDIT: Oh and for those annoyed at people holding hands while walking, seriously? I get annoyed at people moving slowly or blocking exits quite frequently, but if you get annoyed by people holding hands in public, it's not them, it's you. :rofl:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/21/2016 at 11:54 AM, zelticgar said:

I spend a lot of time in urban environments using a variety of transportation modes and I am hyper aware of how my movements affect others. How you walk and where you walk has a lot of downstream effects on the flow of people. Here in the Boston area we see many people who do not understand that they should be walking on the right side of the walkways similar to road traffic. They cause considerable anxiety, and time loss due to not following patterns correctly....Most often the reason this occurs is that there is nothing built into people’s brains about being aware of those around you. I'm always thinking about how my movements can optimize the movements of those around me with the ultimate goal of never being an impediment to others. I am not sure why this instinct does not exist in a larger part of the population.

It does, but those people and their ancestors are fine where they are and have no need to emigrate to the United States. It's not the cooperative people who tend to end up here. In a way, I think this oblivious individualism is just part of the American character.

(Not that this is the only place or culture you see it in. I just only have pat bullshit answer-attempts for the U.S.)

If this bothers you a lot, I'd avoid cities in Texas.

On 10/21/2016 at 0:28 PM, zelticgar said:

We have security cards that require us to scan into the lobby area. I sometime follow people all the way from the parking garage to the lobby and once they get to the card scanner they have to pause to start digging through their bag to find their access card. It's about a 4 minute walk from the garage to the entrance and at no point did they consider they should have their card ready. Must be nice going through life like that.  

Not really.

I hope they're standing to the side doing this, and not blocking the scanner.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, Lily Valley said:

Hm, what was brought to mind to me with the snail's pace comment is people who are sightseeing or playing with their phone and meandering left to right effectively blocking the sidewalk with unpredictable motion.  Not a person who is simply moving slowly.  Tourists are a NIGHTMARE for foot traffic here.  They pay no attention to their surroundings and block sidewalks, entrances, exits and aisles in stores.  They wander into traffic without looking. The urge to scream "MOVE!" gets overwhelming.

Yeah this is what I meant by the comment. People looking down, blocking the pavement, just being RUDE. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Ariadne23 said:

 

Not really.

I hope they're standing to the side doing this, and not blocking the scanner.

The most common scenario is they realize they don't have their scan card handy as they approach the scanner bank and start digging through their pockets or bag to find it. Inevitably it takes them some time to look for it and they conduct the search while 2 or 3 people either stand behind them waiting or people try to re-enact a twister game to reach past them to get to the scan bank. It seems like most of the time when this happens people don't realize there are people waiting behind them. They do apologize but the bigger point is they don't have any awareness of their surroundings and are incapable of recognizing what actions they need to be prepared for while getting to work. Put your scan card on before you get to the office so it is ready to go :)  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, zelticgar said:

..they don't have any awareness of their surroundings and are incapable of recognizing what actions they need to be prepared for while getting to work...

The first part is a social failing. The latter part? It's a personal thing. If I turn a doorknob the wrong way, reach for the wrong key, etc., like, once, I'll repeat that idiocy a dozen times before I'll manage to use the theory of implementation intention to extinguish that habit, to the great amusement of other people in my life. Shit, I forgot to bring my badge with me altogether every other month. But if I'm looking up strategies to manage the issue on the internet and stuff, it's not a problem for lack of trying. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On a positive note...  with the increasing ubiquity of debit cards over the years, I honestly can't remember the last time I've had to wait for someone who's waited for every last one of their checkout items to be scanned and tallied before they'll pull out their checkbook and start filling out a check.  That used to be a thing that we hated.  So, there's that...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...