

The perils of walking slow: scientists analyze sidewalk rage - grellas
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703786804576138261177599114.html?mod=WSJ_LifeStyle_LeadStoryNA

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gaius
I don't think this is fair on the so-called "ragers". F'rinstance here in
London we really do get people who will ride the escalator to the bottom, step
off and just stop, seemingly oblivious to the fact that there is a conveyor
mechanism directly behind them delivering a stream people to just where
they're now standing.

Of course they know, they've got all the senses of everyone else. They're just
self-absorbed, and don't care that they're being rude by getting in the way.
There's no reasoning with such people; a shove is the only language they
understand.

~~~
burgerbrain
Exactly.

 _"After all, it seems simple enough to just go around the slow individual."_

Trust me, if I'm able to do that, then I _do_ , no questions asked.
Unfortunately the other common behaviours of slow walkers include: sudden
erratic motion, walking side by side in lines with others, and stopping dead
in choke-points.

~~~
gaius
Or people who will stand right in the doorway of a train when people are
getting on and off, rather than stepping to one side (or even off the train
altogether, people will always let them get back on first). These people have
made their choice, it's just attention seeking really. However the London
commuter is not a shy species...

Or people who will stand on the left, despite clearly being able to see that
_no-one else is_ , even if they can't read the clear signs in English. Again
it's not rude to push them out of the way; they started it.

~~~
Isofarro
I have this theory that in London at rush hour, the space available on a busy
train will exactly hold the total number of London commuters that are waiting
at the platform. Apart from myself, I've never seen a London commuter not get
on a train, however packed it is.

I'm a pavement rager. I'm baffled by slow people with no consideration
dawdling through a train station at rush hour. I tried once to patiently amble
along behind them, and found out it impossible.

I've learnt with OAPs that if they look like they are slowing down (!), and
you have the choice to go around either side, always chose the smallest gap.
Almost always they turn like an oil-tanker into the larger gap. That way you
can pass by unnoticed.

Couple of things wind me up. A guy reading a Kindle bumbling up a flight of
stairs utterly unaware of the holdup he was causing.

Not sure about handbags, they seem to be blunt instruments to be swung at
fellow commuters. And always seem to increase in size and violence when their
handler is looking away from you.

Also, the number one tip for being bumped into by other people: wear a laptop
backpack. I have a feeling there's some sort of super-magnetic quality
backpacks have when on my back...

I would find it useful to demarcate walking and standing areas in train
station concourses. Although they have a no-standing area in Shepherd's Bush
and that doesn't seem to be working. Not sure whether passengers are generally
oblivious of their surroundings or have just have their London commuter face
on.

~~~
gaius
And bloody wheeled luggage, I've seen people approach the ticket barrier from
the side, and actually block the next turnstile with their bag while they look
for their ticket! Kicking's too good for these people.

------
defen
I guess I would be considered a "sidewalk rager", although rage is a very
strong word since I've never risen to the level of physical contact or even
verbal confrontation - perhaps exasperation would be a better word. It's not
limited to sidewalk-walking; it also applies to city driving.

In my experience (having lived in San Francisco and New York) there are two
types of people who trigger this:

1) People who are so self-absorbed that it doesn't even appear to register in
their minds that there are actually other people in the city or on the road.
Into this group would fall some cell-phone users, arrogant business-types,
stroller-pushers, escalator-blockers, etc.

2) People who feel powerless in their own lives, and intentionally cause grief
as a passive-aggressive way of asserting dominance over others without really
breaking the law. Typically urban poor and out-of-town youths.

Lest anyone get the wrong idea, I don't think everyone needs to have the same
conception of city etiquette as I do. I'm just describing one of the (little)
drawbacks to living in a crowded city for someone with my personality.

~~~
alexqgb
Stated beautifully. The issue cited in the paper doesn't seem to be "rage",
which seems fairly uncommon. Instead, it seems to address common exasperation
with the congenitally (and deliberately?) witless, with a few extremes thrown
in for good effect.

It would be different if the author acknowledged that the people triggering
exasperation were, in fact, behaving badly. Instead, he seems to dismiss any
sense of socially cohesive conduct as something mysterious, arbitrary, and
possibly dangerous. It's easy to read the whole thing as a passive-aggressive
defense of passive-aggressive jerks.

The one in a million who actually go ballistic are outliers. The PA types who
trigger them - though a minority - are exponentially more common, and an
irritation for everybody.

~~~
teyc
I don't think this is the author's focus. He is trying to convey that there is
a better way rather than being easily exasperated because the negativity
wastes the limited life we each have.

The sense of exasperation arises out of a state of mind that is easily
disturbed and ruffled. Whatever skills one can gain from being 'at one' with
the crowd will translate into the rest of their lives, and improve the
relationship with their loved ones.

------
gaoshan
The example of a rager they give reminds me (somewhat ashamedly) of myself
last summer at the Expo in China.

I "know" China and Chinese people so the way people in massive crowds walk in
China is no surprise to me but at that Expo, with its massive-even-for-China
crowds and sardine-like packed spacing I lost it a couple of times.

The Chinese idea of personal space is already a challenge for most from the
West but pack the place nuts to butts with way too many people, throw in the
utter disregard for lines that many in China have and it's a recipe for
tension for most foreigners. My breaking point was when people started to
shove and push my 9 year old daughter (as she was the weakest link in our
group).

I got yelled at when I squared my shoulders and bulled through a line, kids
and wife in tow, that (for lack of someone providing a foot of space) would
have otherwise required a quarter-mile detour and I admit I feel a bit bad
about that. Heck, just standing still I knocked a guy flat on his back (I got
tired of being the only one, seemingly, moving out of the way when I walked so
as an experiment I decided to walk from point A to B in a straight line. There
was a small group headed my way and when we got close I simply stopped and
stood my ground. When they collided with me people went flying as I'm a very
big guy and they were not). The folks that ran into me thought it was
hilarious. I was a bit steamed.

I guess it takes a bit of a push to get me going but I have some of that rage
lurking in me. Makes me feel the need to excise it, lol.

------
georgecmu
A lot of their examples involve narrow passages in locations, where it's
likely that a large percentage of pedestrians are pressed for time: airports,
subways, business districts. There's etiquette that prescribes behavior in
those places, and often it's quite official.

In Moscow, which has one of the busiest subway systems in the world, you learn
as a child to stand on the right and let people pass on the left, regardless
of how crowded or empty the escalator is. There are occasional loudspeaker
reminders of that rule. When I moved to the States, it exasperated me that
people would block the entire escalator and wouldn't even think of budging,
being completely oblivious of other people and their needs.

Another recent example -- I was late to a meeting and had to navigate through
a long corridor, which was reasonably empty and wide enough for 6 people to
walk shoulder to shoulder. No problem, except for a lady in front of me, who
not only walked just fast enough that I couldn't execute a quick maneuver to
pass her, but also did not walk in a straight path and instead oscillated
quickly and unpredictably. We walked for half the length of this passage,
before I finally had an opening to pass her.

Generally, slow walkers are not a problem. Slow walkers in narrow passages
that act as if they're a sole Earth inhabitant -- are.

~~~
Semiapies
Yes. There's a weird sense of, "Man, people think there are all these
_rules_..." in TFA.

Well, there _are_.

------
mahmud
I lived in the southern-most point of Kowloon, Hong Kong, easily one of the
most crowded areas on earth, and also one with the highest concentration of
tourists. This never fails; go to the gate of any metro stop and you will find
a group of tour-bus idiots holding hands in a road-blocking vigil.

How about the Shoulder-to-Shoulder Walkers: the obstructionist quartet of
parallel dimwits.

Or guy who likes to stand in the middle of the moving walk way when I am
running to board a flight (bonus if he has no luggage.)

------
e40
I have a similar but slightly different issue: raging at bicycles while
walking on the sidewalk. I've been hit twice, by completely unrepentant
cyclists, and had near misses with scores of others. I will always give a
dirty look at a cyclist on a sidewalk, the meanness in direct proportion with
their speed.

One that gets me: riding in a business district right next to open shop doors
--someone could walk out and get seriously injured. For these cyclists, I will
sometimes step in front of them (if I can safely) and nicely tell them to take
it to the street.

~~~
bryanlarsen
You're right, bicycles do belong on the street -- it's actually safer for them
there (most accidents are at intersections, and the closer you are to the
middle of the road, the more visible you are).

However, far worse than pedestrian ragers are car ragers. There's something
about being isolated in a bubble that turns ordinary people into ragers. And
some of these car ragers believe that bicycles belong on sidewalks and
deliberately endanger bicyclist lives to force them onto the sidewalk.

There's no easy solution, but one is simply more bicyclists, making bicyclists
a common site on roads.

------
wybo
Walking-etiquette seems to be even less established/clear in places in the UK
where there are many tourists, expats and/or overseas students.

I've lived both in London and Oxford now, and in both these cities (but
especially Oxford) there seems to be no default side of the road/sidewalk to
walk on, or for passing people, leading to all kinds of interesting
situations.

There is less bumping into one another here, probably, because most people
here seem quite polite, but 'after you, no after you', and 'left-right-left
dancing, as two people approach one another from opposite directions and
consider on which side to pass', are quite commonly observed :)

I wonder how the left VS right side of the road issue + the idea that
pedestrians should walk on the other side than traffic, so they can see cars
coming - forked on top of it, works out in other, similar places, and whether
it could lead to different local optima ?

------
danielsoneg
This article was clearly written by someone who A) Doesn't live in a city and
B) Never had to get anywhere by walking.

~~~
HelloBeautiful
The previous post was clearly written by someone who A) Is an aggressive
walker ;-)

------
nickolai
And yet another case of " Am I free to impede the freedom of others? " type of
conflict.

------
shaggyfrog
This Improv Anywhere "mission" seems apropos:

<http://improveverywhere.com/2010/06/08/the-tourist-lane/>

------
edw519
Closely related:

Checkout-Line Rage: When you empty your shopping cart with only one hand
because you're on the phone. When you don't step forward to enable the next
person to emply her cart. When you take 27 items through the express line.
When you pay by credit/debit/check/etc. and don't know how. When you use
coupons.

Movie Theater Rage: When you enter the theater 5 minutes after the movie
started and complain you can't find a seat. When you talk during the movie.
When you text during the movie. When you bring your baby. When you put your
feet on my chair, next to my head. When you say, "Here comes the scene where
the car hits him!"

Neighbor Rage: When your yard sale visitors block my driveway. When your idiot
kid shovels your snow onto my driveway. When your dog shits on my lawn. When
you play any Rick Astley song while you wash your car.

Work Rage: When you put the empty coffee pot on a hot burner. When you leave
your fish sandwich in the refrigerator for 3 weeks. When you touch every donut
just to see what they are. When you buy the last Snickers from the vending
machine. When you wear too much fragrence. When you bitch about others wearing
too much fragrence.

Previous Programmer Rage: When you name all your variables x, xx, xxx, and
xxxx. When you have the exact same code 9 times in the same program and I only
changed 8 of them. When you document anything 4 different places, all of them
differently. When you promote your code before bothering to test for outlying
cases. When you don't sign your work so I don't know who to bitch about.

~~~
viraptor
> When you don't sign your work

Also, when you put your name anywhere in the file, since not only the code is
going to outlive you career there, I can get more detailed information from
the VCS. It's like a badly drawn graffiti tag.

~~~
lukeschlather
Some of us have done too much work in environments where VCS scares people.

Actually, when I worked with UniBASIC/Datatel, VCS was basically impossible
because the architecture was so bizarre. Unless I wanted to write my own, and
of course I had actual tasks I was trying to accomplish and writing a VCS was
not really worth it if I couldn't get anyone else to use it.

Better to adopt the habit of copying database records (which doubled as source
files) with a note of the date and my initials, since that's how it was done.
Well, also I did quit.

~~~
dasil003
One nice use of git in this circumstance is just turning some directory into a
versioned directory. Then every time you work on it, you commit everything
that's there with a comment "all the shit everyone else did since I last
touched it", then you have a nice record of what you did and also big clusters
documenting whatever fuckups may have occurred.

~~~
lukeschlather
I seriously considered it. It probably would have worked, since database
tables were implemented as delimited text files. [1][2]

But our vendor had their own deployment system, and there was zero chance of
them sending us Git patches instead of their proprietary ones, and most of
what we did was integrate patches from the vendor into our code. So really I
took the only option available to me.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pick_operating_system>

[2] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_U2>

