Day 27: Yield to right of way

Clarence Thomas once said, “Good manners will open doors that the best education cannot.” It seems that some people think that education can, however, open enough doors. Take, for instance, the swarms of intrapubescents who descend on the campus every summer, presumably because their parents need a break from the sass-mouthed reminders of their failure to impart the basics of etiquette.

By far, the most aggravating behaviour of these young-un’s is that they walk across campus in clumps, spanning the entire width of the sidewalk and refuse to move out of the way of anyone walking toward them. Being behind them is not much better a predicament, as they walk at the break-neck speeds one would expect of continental drift.

I don’t want to play the “this is my campus” card, but does it not occur to these young’uns either to keep to one side or put that fancy “respect your elders” thing to some practical use? Some people try to stand their ground, hoping for a last-minute recognition of their right to use the sidewalk – the credulous fools - and such approaches invariably result in collisions. Courtesy of some thesis weight, this approach actually has proven to be somewhat amusing for me recently, because my closing momentum outdoes theirs by a fair margin.

I have pixelated the faces of these whippersnappers, not out of any respect for their privacy, but rather, to describe better how I actually view them, i.e. faceless obstacles on a route I have no intention of modifying. I was particularly unimpressed by this cadre of strollers after I watched them fail to move out of the way of my neighbour (see arrow), who was pushing her young baby’s pram and walking with her two year old son, thus forcing her to get off the pavement and walk on the grass while passing them.