Oh. My. God. Please move over. You are in everyone’s way. They want to move along and you’re blocking them.
You’ve probably been in that situation before. You’re walking, minding your own business, probably on your way to buy that coffee to keep you awake throughout the day. You see the coffee shop in the distance, and your mind starts to crave that cup of joe. That is until the person that was walking in front of you stops for no reason. You do one of two things, either you stop, or you bump into that person. Either way, you are now annoyed with that person. All you think about for the rest of the day is how annoying it was to have that person block your path.
Imagine if you were in that person’s shoes. You’re on your way to grab some groceries. You leave your house, all fine and dandy. All that’s on your mind is what source you’re going to have with the pasta you’re going to make that night. That is until you decide to stop walking for some godforsaken reason. You do one of two things, either you apologize to the person behind you, or you don’t talk at all and keep going. Either way, you just ruined that person’s day.
You’ve probably experienced this in school. You’re walking to your next class. All that’s on your mind that day is what’s for lunch, whether are you going to have a quiz in class, and whether are you going to hang out with your friends at the park that day or not. You see your class in the distance but all of a sudden the person in front of you stops in the tight hallway. No matter what happens, you are annoyed with that person for the rest of the day.
Once again, imagine being that person who stopped. You’re probably texting your friends while walking despite the fact that you’re going to see them at lunch later in the day, talking about that bald teacher that’s on your case for being on your phone during class while everyone is trying to learn about what is the powerhouse of the cell, and how that nerd’s mom came to the school one day to give an anti-bullying speech. All of a sudden, you decide to stop because all you care about is yourself and the person who was behind you is now annoyed. It became worse because your friends found you and now a bunch of you decide to block the hallway preventing people from going to class. Everyone in that hallway hates your entire group for ruining the flow of traffic.
(David Schott / Flickr)
I thought this was going to be over in college but turns out that isn’t the case. On my first day, I was trying to find a washroom. The hallways are pretty tight and when a group of people decided to block the hall, it made me realize that people don’t learn their lesson and will still continue to block the hallway. If you really want to stop and talk with your friends, at least find somewhere that’s not in the way of people walking to their destinations.
If cars did this, there would be a lot of problems. Imagine if you saw someone driving and they see their friend on the road. If they stop just to talk in the middle of the road, they will probably cause a lot of accidents on top of people being frustrated. This is a pretty extreme example of this but honestly, it’s not that far-fetched.
(5chw4r7z / Flickr)
This is definitely a waste of time for a lot of people. I was getting off the bus one day and was following someone toward the door. I was super confused as to why the person wasn’t going, and then it finally registered in my brain that the person wasn’t planning on getting off the bus. As I got off, I noticed there were maybe five people behind me. Those two seconds alone just affected more people than me. Imagine if one of those people had to catch a Skytrain in one minute. Those few seconds would’ve prevented that person from getting on. If they need to catch a certain bus afterwards, it might as well be too late for them as they’ll have to wait for both a Skytrain and a bus.
Speaking of Skytrain stations, escalators are easily the biggest issue when it comes to people not moving. By now, we have established that if there are two escalators going in the same direction, you go on the one on the right if you’re planning to stand and you go on the one on the left if you’re planning to walk. If there’s only one going in a certain direction, you at least stand toward the right and walk toward the left. Of course, people are still foolish enough to not know this unestablished established rule. It’s a little more forgivable if two people on different escalators decide to stand since you can probably try to get around them. If it’s two people blocking one escalator, you will probably lose your mind. Those two people just held up an entire escalator and there are ten people late to that thing they need to get to. This is why I try to take the stairs when possible. People for the most part at least move and since they’re wide for the most part, that gives people enough room to pass. Even if the escalator is faster, I will take the stairs because I can guarantee movement. If someone stops on the stairs, that’s when I lose all respect for them. If I bump into them, that’s going to be a huge problem if they’re going down.
(Robert Geiger / Flickr)
People need to learn when to move out of the way. No one likes having to make an abrupt stop whenever they’re walking. If you really need to stop, at least find a place that’s not where people are walking.