The Random Walk

[UncleEbenezer]

How do you navigate a crowd - as in a shopping street? I just try to get through and out the other side. Which means aiming for, and anticipating, the best gaps in the crowd. Sometimes accelerating into a gap before it closes, anticipating where one will open.

That's all very well with people who dawdle and can be passed, and the minority who (like me) move decisively and won't linger forever blocking a gap if they get there ahead of me. It is not OK with idiots who abruptly change direction without looking, throwing all around into chaos. Nor is it OK with those who as a group suddenly fan out blocking a whole pavement, waiting for each other as they emerge from a shop door or alleyway.

Why can't these idiots look where they're going? Particularly when they suddenly move off or change direction, right into the pathway of anyone who happens to be passing?

[todthedog]

Don't wear blue I'm convinced that you become invisible to certain people if you wear blue. I've been hit by trolleys while standing waiting for Mrs T but only when wearing blue

Move to Carmarthen, you would need to explain the concept of a crowd.

[TUK020]

Why can't these idiots look where they're going? Particularly when they suddenly move off or change direction, right into the pathway of anyone who happens to be passing?

Usually because they are texting

[bungeejumper]

I find the quickest way through a crowd is to ride my bike straight at them, while yelling "nee-nah, nee-nah!" at the top of my voice.

Well, all right, it seems to work for other people, so maybe I should try it some time?

Alternative yells?

"JASON! Put that DOWN. You don't know where it's been!"

"Aaargh, he's thrown up all over me."

"You sure you can't catch ebola, Trish?"

BJ

[sg31]

It seems people have lost awareness of those around them. Maybe they never had that awareness in the first place but the advent of mobile phones does seem to have made things worse.

Reading text messages, talking on a phone or just playing music through headphones certainly affect awareness.

Some poeple are just self absorbed and think they have a right to do what they want where they want. Maybe I'm being harsh and it's just that their lives are so busy that their heads are somewhere else.

One of my pet hates is people with trolleys in supermarkets who look on shelves while managing to block the aisle completely with the trolley. It is particularly common at this time of year.

[didds]

Mostly people with devzces are actually moving.

its the walk-through-the-door-and-immediately-stoop-brigade that are the hassle as they decide with their friend where to go next or where did bert go or whatever inane drivel fills their sad existence

didds

[TUK020]

Mostly people with devzces are actually moving.

its the walk-through-the-door-and-immediately-stoop-brigade that are the hassle as they decide with their friend where to go next or where did bert go or whatever inane drivel fills their sad existence

didds

Sounds like a Rap group...
Sad Existence, with their latest release "Inane Drivel"

[stevensfo]

It's called Overpopulation. Discussed a lot in the 60s, 70s and even 80s, but then slowly removed from discussions when the owners of the tabloid press and certain politicians realised that their riches depended on as many plebs having their noses stuck to the grindstone as possible.

Steve

[quelquod]

Well at least prams have shrunk from what they used to be so when Annie meets Bertha, both pushing a pram, and stops beside her for a natter at least she only blocks threequarters of the pavement rather than the whole width.

[sg31]

Well at least prams have shrunk from what they used to be so when Annie meets Bertha, both pushing a pram, and stops beside her for a natter at least she only blocks threequarters of the pavement rather than the whole width.

OK the prams are smaller but Annie and Bertha might not be.....

[jfgw]

Don't wash for a couple of weeks. The crowd separates like the parting of the red sea.

(Ok, I haven't actually tried it.)


Julian F. G. W.

[roger4]

My particular pet peeve is the people having a chat in the middle of the supermarket aisle. I think they are related to the people who stop in the middle of the path to have a 'Chat". Do they think it OK to stop their cars in the middle of the road for a "chat"? So why do it on a path or in a supermarket aisle? Grrrrrrrr!

[Gersemi]

My particular pet peeve is the people having a chat in the middle of the supermarket aisle. I think they are related to the people who stop in the middle of the path to have a 'Chat". Do they think it OK to stop their cars in the middle of the road for a "chat"? So why do it on a path or in a supermarket aisle? Grrrrrrrr!

Yep, I've been stopped behind people in cars stopped in the middle of the road to have a chat, either with a car driver going in the opposite direction or a pedestrian.

[bungeejumper]

Yep, I've been stopped behind people in cars stopped in the middle of the road to have a chat, either with a car driver going in the opposite direction or a pedestrian.

Guilty. In my neck of the rural woods, it's not unknown for us locals to pull up and say hello when we meet a near-neighbour. Single track roads notwithstanding.

Custom and observance around these parts requires that you shift your @rse and move on within 20 seconds of any other vehicle turning up behind you and wanting you out of the way. Which is nothing compared with the nuisance from DFD delivery vans that will cheerfully block the road for five whole minutes while they deliver a signed-for parcel. Or the council dustcarts, which will equally cheerfully take a tea break while blocking a roundabout.

BJ

[Rhyd6]

Last year whilst Christmas shopping (never again) I witnessed a woman determined to stand no nonsense. She had a loud whistle which she blew when approaching a crowded part of the pavement, in the ensuing seconds of silence she yelled "coming through" at the top of her voice. It was like Moses and the Red Sea, I was most impressed.

R6

[bungeejumper]

Last year whilst Christmas shopping (never again) I witnessed a woman determined to stand no nonsense. She had a loud whistle which she blew when approaching a crowded part of the pavement, in the ensuing seconds of silence she yelled "coming through" at the top of her voice. It was like Moses and the Red Sea, I was most impressed.

I once had a near-neighbour who would do the same sort of thing. In her late eighties, she was, and completely batty, and used to getting her own way. Apparently she had been a famous society beauty in her younger years, and she'd married an eminent scientist, and she'd spent her life in champagne society. If she saw you coming she'd shout, "I'm Margaret Dodgson and you're Bungee Somebody or Other, and I'm coming through." And no, she wasn't being ironic! It was just what came naturally to her.

Sadly, she would drive her bright red sports car in exactly the same manner. Much too fast, right up the middle of the road, and if you didn't like that, it was up to you to get out of her way. How she ever made it to 88 is a mystery I shall never understand.

Of course, if she'd been driving a mobility scooter instead, she'd have fitted right in. A couple of air horns would have been the only extras she needed.....

BJ

[didds]

Which is nothing compared with the nuisance from DFD delivery vans that will cheerfully block the road for five whole minutes while they deliver a signed-for parcel.
BJ

DPD delvery drivers actually deliver parcels instead of shoving a pre signed card trhough your door saying they've tried to deliver, or worse dropped anywhere else with a piiture of the ground to show they've delivered it.?

who knew?!

didds