Applying Rules of the Road Elsewhere

[jeffandnicole]

Frequently I'll tap and say excuse me at the same time.  Many times they'll say 'sorry' or they'll move but look at me. 

If they're stupidly in the way I'll still say excuse me, but it'll be a little more curt than normal.

If they're really annoying and don't move, then my elbow may rub against them as I move by.



One of the worst places to be an offender and stand and talk - at the end of an escalator.  There is NO option other than to keep moving. 

[1995hoo]

This thread, and especially Scott5114's comment about tapping someone on the shoulder, prompts me to think of how so many people no longer say "excuse me"  or the like–they'll stand and wait or contort themselves into weird positions to try to squeeze around people, but God forbid they talk to strangers. Sometimes makes me wonder if their parents taught them too well as kids regarding that issue.

Now, I don't really do the "excuse me" thing anymore because people don't move out of the way when you say it. Of course, my experience is tainted because I work in a casino, which has a lovely confluence of clientele skewing toward the hard-of-hearing, noisiness, and alcohol use. By the time I can get "excuse me" through to a customer (and the next one after that, and...), I could have just gone 4 aisles out of the way and be at my destination.

Then again, I understand people are there as a leisure activity and that while I may have somewhere to be, they do not, and they're the ones paying the bills, so trying to communicate "get out of the damn way" in any sort of fashion, polite or no, is awkward at best.

I think one reason I continue to say "excuse me"  even though many people don't move is that I feel like it gives me some good basis when I shove past them–"I SAID "˜excuse me' twice, but you didn't respond."

Happy birthday!

Thanks.

[SectorZ]

Cyclists should come to a stop at stop signs.  I'm a little fed up with coming to a four-way-stop before a cyclist traveling perpendicular to my direction of motion and having to wait while they fly through the intersection.

As a cyclist who does stop, you have my permission to hit them.

(Actually, I only stop when needed, but I ALWAYS yield ROW)

[noelbotevera]

I'm hopping on the bandwagon by saying that people who stand on the left on the escalator, and those who walk slowly in hallways are the ones who cause me to lose my patience.

<ranting> Seriously, you're blocking where LITERALLY EVERYONE needs to go! Why is it so hard to understand that YOU are being an obstacle, and that by moving little more than a foot, you aren't being an issue. Do you have the need to piss everyone off, just to sate your sociopathic desires, or post on Instagram "LOLZ EVERYONE IS MAD AT ME XD XD" just to get you those likes, which mean nothing? If you complain about somebody shoving you out of the way, then you CAN'T, because YOU are ruining everything and causing the issue in the first place. If you weren't standing there, we wouldn't have this issue in the first place! Some people, which may include me, have places to go - you can't be Miss Daisy and stand around talking to your friends when we actually have important things to do! <end rant>

Had to get that out of my system. Anyways, I can't tell you how many times this happens in places like the DC Metro (such as Smithsonian station), or my own school, because it seems to happen every time I encounter a staircase/doorway/narrow hallway/escalator.

My way of trying to coerce these people into moving is by saying "'scuse me" and tapping them on the shoulder. Typically it works. If it fails, then I'll say "Excuse me" a little more forcefully, and tap their shoulder again a little bit harder. If that fails, I'll probably just yell at them to move, and might even push them out of the way. I've never had to do that third action, luckily.