(don't!) get out of my way please

Here’s a tip for wannebe do-gooders during peak hour pedestrian traffic. The context: you’re standing in a crowded place (that is, almost everywhere outdoors from 8 to 8.45 in the morning), perhaps waiting at a bus stop. A harried, probably late, person is heading in your direction. Feeling up to there with goodness and consideration, you start shuffling to allow them passage.

STOP. Just stop.

While you’re moving to get out of the way, so are the other people around you and collectively, that helps the morning-rusher none. Just imagine you’re driving on an obstacle course – it’s far easier to weave through stationary cones than a bunch of shifting ones.

When I’m running late (which is most of the time – who has time to be early right?) and moving through a group of people, my mind goes into GPS visualization mode. It crafts a line of passage through the existing figures along my way. I can almost hear a mechanical voice in my head instructing me to ‘turn left in 3 steps, after man with backpack picking his nose or woman looking bored with life’.

So please, just stop moving “out” of my way. Thanks.