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The perils of walking slow: scientists analyze sidewalk rage

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Re: The perils of walking slow: scientists analyze sidewalk rage

#21

Post by alexqgb »

Xurinos wrote: post #6
gaius wrote: post #2

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…

This is a case of one group of self-absorbed people intersecting with another group of self-absorbed people. As the article points out, the ragers make up their own perceived rules, and so do the slow people. "I have the right to be here..." "People should be courteous, as I define it..." There is plenty of narcissism to go around with this kind of thing.

So, um, those signs on the freeway saying "slower traffic keep right"... those are the products of self-absorbed narcissists who have done what? Infiltrated the Department of Transportation?

Re: The perils of walking slow: scientists analyze sidewalk rage

#22

Post by gaius »

Xurinos wrote: post #6
gaius wrote: post #2

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…

This is a case of one group of self-absorbed people intersecting with another group of self-absorbed people. As the article points out, the ragers make up their own perceived rules, and so do the slow people. "I have the right to be here..." "People should be courteous, as I define it..." There is plenty of narcissism to go around with this kind of thing.

their own perceived rules, and so do the slow people

My perceived rule is that no two bodies can occupy the same space at the same time. Perhaps you've heard of it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauli_exclusion_principle

Re: The perils of walking slow: scientists analyze sidewalk rage

#23

Post by Xurinos »

alexqgb wrote: post #21
Xurinos wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a case of one group of self-absorbed people intersecting with another group of self-absorbed people. As the article points out, the ragers make up their own perceived rules, and so do the slow people. "I have the right to be here..." "People should be courteous, as I define it..." There is plenty of narcissism to go around with this kind of thing.

So, um, those signs on the freeway saying "slower traffic keep right"... those are the products of self-absorbed narcissists who have done what? Infiltrated the Department of Transportation?

I will be using "you" to mean people that rage in general, not specifically you because I do not know how you react. :)

First, you bring up a different subject: Are we talking about freeway signs or sidewalks? I was going with the sidewalk examples. Why should the same rules apply? Why would you be angry if a walker on a sidewalk was not following the same rules as a car driver on a freeway? It is insensible anyway: humans are not equipped with turn signals, although sometimes I wish they were. ;)

Let's talk about road rage now. In the presence of signs that clearly state "slower traffic keep right", why would you be angry if someone drives slower on the left? Sure, they are disobeying traffic signs, breaking the law, etc, but why is that your concern? What gives you the authority to "punish" (honking horns, riding a lawbreaker's tail, giving the finger on your way by, swerving angrily around to indicate your opinion, etc)?

No, the signs are not products of self-absorbed narcissists, not for these situations; those individuals may very well fit that profile in spite of the signs, but we do not have direct evidence of that in any scenario described so far. The anger reaction from the perceived slight in these circumstances is.

Ironically, when we talk about narcissism, we probably need to self-analyze, too. All of us have a certain amount of it, or we would not be gracing the rest of the Internet public with the bounties of our posts, believing that people might actually care about our opinions. :)

Re: The perils of walking slow: scientists analyze sidewalk rage

#24

Post by alexqgb »

defen wrote: post #16

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…

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.

Re: The perils of walking slow: scientists analyze sidewalk rage

#25

Post by RyanMcGreal »

edw519 wrote: post #8

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…

I sense a general case:

X Rage: when you're inconsiderate toward others.

Re: The perils of walking slow: scientists analyze sidewalk rage

#26

Post by steamer25 »

burgerbrain wrote: post #3
gaius wrote: post #2

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…

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.

I don't live in too crowded an area so pedestrians can usually be avoided and/or alerted with an, "excuse me" or two. There are enough people, though, who are aggressively inconsiderate that I do occasionally have problems on foot.

What really irks me is that these same people, who feel entitled to monopolize any given thoroughfare, are just as common in motorized vehicles on the highway. The problems there are much worse though. Honking is considered rude and is usually illegal for non-emergency use. There's no such thing as a gentle but assertive shove with that much kinetic energy involved. In the worst case, some self-righteous offenders will intentionally congest traffic if they feel others' driving is 'unsafe'.

Re: The perils of walking slow: scientists analyze sidewalk rage

#27

Post by 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.

Re: The perils of walking slow: scientists analyze sidewalk rage

#28

Post by bryanlarsen »

e40 wrote: post #12

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 s…

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.

Re: The perils of walking slow: scientists analyze sidewalk rage

#29

Post by lukeschlather »

viraptor wrote: post #15
edw519 wrote: post #8

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…

> 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.

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.

Re: The perils of walking slow: scientists analyze sidewalk rage

#30

Post by mkr-hn »

alexqgb wrote: post #21
Xurinos wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a case of one group of self-absorbed people intersecting with another group of self-absorbed people. As the article points out, the ragers make up their own perceived rules, and so do the slow people. "I have the right to be here..." "People should be courteous, as I define it..." There is plenty of narcissism to go around with this kind of thing.

So, um, those signs on the freeway saying "slower traffic keep right"... those are the products of self-absorbed narcissists who have done what? Infiltrated the Department of Transportation?

There are situations, most streets in and around Atlanta for example, where "slower traffic" means a vehicle going the speed limit.

Most people around here don't trust that the engineers who plan roads have some sense of what they're doing. :)

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