3/24/08 - You don't own the road

This is going to be one of my personal rants. If you don't really care how I feel about things, you can skip this post altogether and visit Rainbow Land. This particular situation has not come up in quite some time, simply because I haven't been shopping or in an area where many people are gathered.

Here's the basic problem: There are some people in this world that thing they are owed something. People who think they have been wronged somehow and therefore think they own the place. Of course, there is a smaller subset of these people who just don't care, and they have other issues I don't care to deal with.

I believe that about every other time I visit Wal-Mart, Target, or pretty much any other large parking lot area, there is at least one person who things that those wide lanes were designed and created so that they could walk right down the middle of it. News flash people, those lanes are wide enough for two cars to drive down it, and they were not designed primarily for use by pedestrians. There have been times that I have come into this situation, and the person turns around to see that a car is coming and they get out of the way. This post is not about them. I'm talking about the person (typically with their five children) who does not even bother to look around to see if there is a car around. Not to mention the fact that unless you are driving an electric car, vehicles are not made to be stealthy. You can hear when a car is approaching. Now let's say that said person (with multiple children, none of which they are paying attention to) can not hear the vehicle and therefore is not moving. I'll give them a little bit of a break on this, but at the same time, why in the world are they allowing their children (assuming they are related somehow) to walk down a road (that's what it is, it's a road, a slow road, but a road with moving vehicles) virtually unattended, that's a different rant altogether.

But then there are those people who hear the vehicle, turn around and look, and continue to walk right down the middle...that really gets me, that gets me good. In fact, when this situation comes up, (and Cristi hates this) I will get basically as close to the person as possible (still with plenty of space to stop, of course we are only going about 5 miles an hour) and rev the engine. Basically, I'm tailgating the person/people, and they aren't in a car. I've been tempted to honk, but if I were to do that, Cristi would probably beat me to death with her backhand.

Here's another situation. Wal-mart has the largest pedestrian crossing area in the world. I think the entire area in front of the store is marked as pedestrian crossing. Now, I understand that they have the right of way, but out of consideration, there is no reason to take 5 minutes to cross a 20 foot space. When I come out of Wal-mart, I immediately look both ways to determine if there is anyone coming. If there is, I will simply travel down the sidewalk towards my car instead of impeding the flow of traffic. Once there is a break, I cross and head to my vehicle. Now, if it's busy, I will slowly creep towards the road and wait for someone to pause before entering the crossing zone. Once I'm allowed into the street, I will move at a brisk jog, or at a minimum a fast walk. I recognize that even though I'm not in a hurry, someone else probably is. I'm sure I've been guilty of the things I've mentioned, but I really do make an honest effort to prevent myself from doing these same things.

Last but not least, it's a similar situation in the parking lot, but then when you get into the store, and I'm using Wal-mart again as an example. I will be the first to admit that my wife is guilty of this just as much if not more than anyone else. When you are shopping, and the aisles are just wide enough for two carts to pass each other, DON'T STOP IN THE MIDDLE OF AN AISLE! If I had to guess, I'd say this happens anywhere from 5-10 times every single time I go into the store. What makes it even worse is when you are walking down a major aisle, such as the one in front of the check out counters, someone is in front of you, you've got heavy traffic going in both directions (everyone following the rules of the road, drive on the right), and suddenly the person in front of you, with there entourage of people stops. Comes to a complete stop and you've got to either swerve to avoid hitting them or come to a complete stop yourself and hope the person behind you doesn't hit you. The way I see it, treat the aisles just like you were driving. You don't own the road and you don't own the road, so why do you think you should own the aisle.

Let's say you need to get Tomato soup (a common item on our grocery list). If you have been to wal-mart recently, you know that there are roughly 725 different kinds of soup made by Campbell. And every time you go, they rearrange them. Chicken noodle is on the top row on the left one day, and the next day it's in the middle row on the far right. I understand you have to look for it. But I simply ask this of you, don't park your cart in the middle of aisle next to the macaroni and cheese 20 feet away and walk to the soups. Take the cart with you. Park directly across the aisle from the soup and search while still monitoring your cart. This way, you should be out of the way as people can still pass on one side of you. And if you are in the way of someone (say someone is looking for the tomato paste which you are now parked in front of), you can easily slide your cart a few feet in one direction and everyone is happy.

Some might think that I life a miserable life because there are some many things that get under my skin. I really don't, I just always expect the best out of people and do everything I can to treat others the way I expect to be treated. The above items seem like simple common courtesy and I don't understand why other's can't feel the same way. I do let these things get under my skin more than I should, and I'm sure my blood pressure rises. I would love to get feedback from anyone on why my feelings are wrong, what I should do, or basically whatever you think about what I've said.


1 Comments - Leave one yourself

There are 2 main things that just drive me crazy about parking lots. First of all, when you are able to park in a handicapped parking spot, why don't you park in between the two lines they give you instead of taking up those two lanes because you are crazy crooked and also the white hashes next to it. Those hashes are used to unload handicapped people. If you cannot park in the alotted two lines just like everybody else, then just go ahead and not park there.

The second complaint I have is when it comes to backing into parking spots. If you are going to back into a parking spot, back all the way into the parking spot and not leave half of the vehicle sticking out into the middle lane! Its really not difficult. I, even with my horrible depth perception, am able to back into a parking space. Wow, that feels good!

By Anonymous Anonymous, at April 1, 2008 at 1:04 PM  

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