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Comment by makmanalp | Hacker News Reader

For me it's a combo between this /and/ just people's attitude - it's fine if you want to be slow, but you have to be considerate of others. I wouldn't be mad if you were walking slowly on the side of the street - probably wouldn't even notice - but I'll be mad if you're walking slowly in the middle. It often costs nothing to be considerate, and it makes life more pleasant for everyone!

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I live in Toronto, and there is PATH - 30 km (and growing) network of tunnels and concourses connecting major downtown towers, buildings, subway stations and shopping malls. It is indispensable in winter and hot summer where you can buy goods and services without ever going outside.

The problem with PATH is, ironically, pedestrians. My biggest gripe are people walking slowly, 3 or 4 abreast. The list goes on: stopping and turning 180 suddenly, bumping into each other cutting corners etc.

It bothers me enough that I started to fantasize about adopting road-like rules for walking in busy places: no more than 2 persons side to side, no sudden stops, green and red lights in the row of doors to regulate the direction of the flow, cutting corners is only allowed for right turns...

That's nothing. If you ever enter a big, popular 5 or 10 km running race in Canada, expect people who are running in the "shortest line of sight" sections of the course to suddenly stop, drop and tie their shoe laces, without so much as glancing backwards, even though they obviously know that people are running all around, within two or three feet of each other.

Given that runners can't think about others in such a specific situation, you can forget consideration on walkways, which are subject to different concurrent uses.

Oh, oh, here is something! Sometimes I do interval training on an outdoor, rubberized running track. For some reason, though the town has many parks, people go to this track to walk around. And they walk around in the inner lane, lane 1! Some of them don't get out of the way and use a different lane when people do running workouts even after being passed several times. The last time I was there, a woman came with a baby stroller, and parked it in the curve, some 15 meters down from the starting line, in Lane 1! Of all the places in the city where you can go with a baby stroller and park it, she picked that spot. The mental process behind that must be astonishing ...

I agree--most, probably all, of my "slowness rage" is due to people being inconsiderate. If I need to stop and get my bearings or check my itinerary on my phone, I try my best to stand aside and out of the way. It's not difficult. I wish more people would do this. No one is obligated to be in a hurry, but it should be common courtesy to not jam things up for those who are.

It is the exact same thing as with slow cars driving in the middle or outer lane. They can really spur up some road rage in people.

This is the why I despise most cyclists. I wont speak for every cyclists, but around here (Portland, OR), cyclists often ride in the street (bike lane available), slow down traffic, do not obey stop signs, turn without signals, blow do-not-walk signals, etc.

Some of the most entitled, selfish people there are.

Whenever I read about people considered to be inconsiderate, I wonder: did anyone bother to make this clear to the "inconsiderate" people in question?

It is a basic social obligation to be alert to the impact that one is having on others.

What does that have to do with the social obligation to point out when someone isn't?

It depends on whether the offender cares or not. If they cared, they probably would not be transgressing in the first place. If they didn't care, they would probably react aggressively to being told off.

You're being pretty inconsiderate yourself! You expect everyone else to constantly make an effort to get out of your way and don't consider how your rush is impeding others!

Sometimes I like going for a walk with friends, we'll walk slowly and next to another so we can talk and enjoy the beautiful weather. And you expect us to walk behind another along the right side of the sidewalk?

Please consider my priorities before calling me inconsiderate!

O.K, I've considered your priorities. Now move!

I'm guessing this is slightly tongue in cheek, but I'll bite anyway in the interests of decoding the hidden social rules :P

* considerate: walking in the middle, but fast

* considerate: walking on the side

* considerate: walking slowly or multiple people abreast, when there's enough room

* considerate: walking slowly or multiple people abreast, when there's no room, but paying attention behind you

Really, you (in the general sense here) have all these easy options to be nice, but you'll refuse even the most minor inconvenience?

Also, I'm not being inconsiderate for wanting to get somewhere - that's what most roads are /made for/. Roads made for leisurely strolling are made wide anyway. And it's not like I'm ramming through - I also do my best to avoid bothering the people I'm passing by. I'm taking the effort, so why shouldn't you? Inconsiderate would be me pushing through or telling you to make way when there's already room.

Sometimes a simple "scuse me", without even a frustrated tone, elicits the grumpiest responses so mostly I just walk slowly behind and don't even bother asking.

Anyway, this is longer than I even thought I would consider this issue!

Instead of "considerate", you might as well label those actions "convenient for me". Here are a few things I might label considerate:

* considerate: walk slowly so you don't startle others

* considerate: keep a respectful distance to people walking in front of you

* considerate: adjust your walking speed to the average to reduce the number of collisions

* considerate: take a less congested route

* considerate: leave work 5 minutes earlier so you're not in such a hurry

* considerate: smile at people to make their day brighter

* considerate: let other people walk whereever they want

* considerate: don't expect other people to be considerate

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