I Walk the Line
Walking is very much like the driving experience - similar courtesies, obvious right-of-way scenarios, merging etiquette, etc. While there are pedestrian laws that focus on jay-walking, trespassing and drunk-in-public there is virtually nothing we can do about the majority of walking decisions that fall into the category of bad form. I am convinced that many of these “goofy-footers” are the same shady drivers that we encounter on the road.
This story focuses on the abrupt re-direct walker. This is the kind of walker that, while walking slight ahead of you, decides to change directions without even a hint of their intentions. As I walked behind our man-of-the-moment (about 8 feet behind at the 5 o-clock position), I tried to anticipate his next move….
He knew I was behind him, for just 25-30 steps earlier, we both stepped onto the sidewalk from opposing directions. I even paused briefly curbside to allow the walker the right-of way (we were close enough to have collided had I not yielded). The trouble started with the “drift.” A slow encroachment on my path over a period of 15-20 steps – essentially forcing me to alter my path…I chose a little more distance instead.
There was no way I could have guessed what was coming – it defied perambulator logic, bordered on absurdity, was just plain silly. Without warning, Willy Walker slows (ever so slightly) looks off to the left (for reasons still unknown) and with the skill of an NFL running back, makes a 90-degree cut to the right – right in front of me. Forcing me to put on the breaks and cut to the left to avoid an embarrassing mid-sidewalk collision. Of course there was no acknowledgment of the near miss, no motioned apology for the misdirection, not even a word to indicate that he was aware that there were actually other people in the world (especially the one about 1 foot off his flank, struggling to maintain personal space). I wonder if this guy also drives a Mercedes… Inconsiderate pedestrians – hardly Model Citizenship…
