And it isn’t just the tourists. Many of these sidewalk morons are clearly city residents.
I think it’s a symptom of living cheek by jowl in a city. Sidewalk rage doesn’t happen in small towns. Very little road rage either, except when they’re moving farm equipment and some dope is afraid to pass. Usually not a local.
A while ago, as a joke, a prankster group whose name escapes me now, painted lanes on the sidewalk, one for New Yorkers, one for tourists. Most New Yorkers I talked to wanted them to be made official.
There is sort of a passing lane, a fast lane, and a window-shopper/gawker/tourist/oblivious lane. Or most people think there should be that same consideration, some getting angry when it’s not observed as convention. We’re all in a hurry getting to wherever it is we’re then in a hurry to get away from to hurry on to wherever it is... [repeat ad infinitum]
I wonder how much public funding was used in these studies and how much rage would be induced if we knew?
Being very irritated is not the same thing as being enraged, you know. If you started screaming at the miscreant, or even attacked him, then you where enraged. If you only thought "what a jerk", and moved on, then there was no rage involved. Road rage, for example, involves actual criminal assault. I'm afraid that "sidewalk rage" is just some catchphrase invented by the author, or others, for literary effect. The normal tension that one feels walking on a crowded sidewalk in the big city is very far from rage.
Do we need legislation for this new problem now?
Now get out.
I would not live anywhere that “sidewalk rage” could exist.
This article sets up a false choice. The options aren’t do nothing versus fly into a rage. The first analysis is whether the person really is doing something that impacts you. Someone walking and talking on a cell phone is a good example. Just because you see someone doing it doesn’t mean they are impacting you unless they are blocking your path. Some people just like to engage in “justified anger” at behaviours even if the behaviours don’t really impact them. The second analysis is how to react. If someone is blocking your path or bumps into you, it isn’t necessary to fly into a rage or react with a nasty look or obnoxious comment—that usually is not warranted. A polite “excuse me” is all that is necessary.
Or maybe its just a selfish character defect.
I see people swerving around and walking into things more and more often here in Manhattan. Usually they are texting or chatting on a cell phone. (Sometimes, I think they’re just bonkers.)
When I lived in Atlanta, I noticed that drivers on cell phones did a lot of swerving in and out of lanes of traffic.
One of the most annoying things here in Manhattan are the strollers. Mother’s walk side by side blocking the sidewalk. Sometimes 3 or 4 will walk side by side blocking the whole sidewalk. They get annoyed when you simply stop and make them go around!
1. Groups that stop dead in their tracks to figure out where they are headed. Why can't they move aside to think/chat?
2. Groups that walk 2,3, 4 (or more) abreast towards you and will not move to let you walk past.
No joke. I just came back from a Dr appt, and this idiot was walking to the parking garage. He almost walked into a glass window. He got on the elevator, still texting.
I punched the button for my level, and asked him for his. No answer, but after the door closed, he punched another level. The door opened for his level, and he stood there texting away. Dumb@$$.
It’s pathological behavior brought on by overcrowding (see http://www.psychlotron.org.uk/resources/environmental/A2_OCR_env_crowdeffects.pdf). Read what happened in the famous Calhoun lab-rat colony study as they became more and more crowded. Killing their young, homosexuality, increased aggression, and other depraved behavior.
standing side-by-side on escalators, blocking the left-hand fast lane,
I didn’t realize there WERE lanes on escalators,
you’d think the DOPT would mark them.
( Dept of Pedestrian Transportation )
I broke my ankle a couple of months ago, and I can't get around at my normal speed (admittedly, that's pretty fast). So, I stay aware of my surroundings and others, and I get the hell out of the way of faster moving people coming up behind me.
I also don't stand in doorways or in areas prone to traffic.
I was at the Whole Foods earlier this week, a prime spot for lib watching. In the ten or fifteen minutes I was there, one libtard left his shopping cart at bizarre angles in order to maximize his ability to block traffic, FOUR TIMES.
As I was leaving, I noticed him returning his shopping cart, which was surprising since he'd shown no recognition of the existence of anyone else up to that point... but I was wrong. He just took it to the doorway leading to the steps, grabbed his stuff, and left - blocking the doorway.
I don't think I need to mention that when I saw him in the parking lot, he had an Obama/Biden bumper sticker on his Prius.
I must admit not knowing the unspoken rule for escalator traffic (stationary on right - walking on left) on the east coast when I first visited. So, maybe that rule should be posted for those from flyover country where escalators are seldom used on a daily basis.
I will admit that from time to time I have been tempted to launch into “Walmart aisle rage” by the, um, “Sunday drivers” wending their way at a leisurely pace three abreast through the store, taking up both the slow lane and the passing lane as well as the lanes for the traffic going in the opposite direction...