Pedestrian Mentality

I was out shopping this weekend, and a few incidents made me realize that the phrase "pedestrians have the right-of-way" has gotten a little out of hand. It appears that this phrase has started a whole new attitude that trumps our ideals of what it means to be courteous, not to mention careful.

Here are two examples:

I was parked between two very large vehicles at a grocery store. In my little car, there was no way that I could have seen over the cars beside me as I backed out, so I put it in reverse and started backing out slowly, checking both directions as I went. As I glanced left, I saw two small children dart behind my car. I hit the brakes. No harm done.

About fifteen feet behind the children was their mother, glaring at me. Okay, so I almost didn't see your kids, I thought, but didn't she see my reverse lights? Didn't she think that maybe there might be cars moving in the parking lot, and that maybe she shouldn't let her kids go running ahead of her?

When I was young, my mother would have apologized to the driver with a wave and then scolded my sister and I for not watching where we were going. Did that make my mother a bad person? No, it made her courteous, careful, and a good parent. She wanted us to know that we weren't invincible and that knowing what was going on around us was important.

The second event of my shopping trip wasn't nearly as eventful. I was at a store near my house, looking, as was everyone, for a place to park. As I drove up and down the aisles, traffic was at a standstill because of all of the people walking down the middle of each aisle. The worst part was that almost all of them appeared to know exactly what they were doing, looking behind to see how many cars had stacked up behind them,

I know that we have been taught that cars yield to pedestrians every time, but whoever came up with that rule probably never thought that pedestrians would actually want to block cars from going by. It's simply rude, and it shows how self-involved some people have gotten.

Remember, treat others the way you would expect to be treated. If you are the guy who wants to walk down the aisle blocking my way, don't be upset when someone does the same to you.

Happy Holidays!