I walked down in the PATH this morning because the skies could not decide whether it was a snow or rain day and as I made my way out of the Bay, a woman rolling her bag behind her abruptly darted in front of me and then came to a dead stop to check her phone. I stumbled over her brick on wheels, rolled my ankle and in anger, kicked her suitcase of death with my other foot. It skidded about a metre forward and out of her grasp.
She faced me and shouted at me, asking me why I would do that. She was intent on making a scene about a scene that she made.
I sarcastically told her, "Because it's Friday," and hobbled away.
She shouted some choice words after me.
I thought about raising the universal finger sign for "you're number one" high above my head as I was walking away, but I didn't. My temper got the best of me, no need to escalate the situation.
I have no love for rolling bags and the people who tow them - very few are situationally aware of the dangers these bags pose in a crowd of people when they decide to "change lanes" or stop suddenly.
I am not implying I was in the right to punt her bag but I did and although I know it was wrong, I'm finding it hard to feel bad about the situation.
I know, I know. Why can't we just be nice to each other?
12 comments:
Good for you. I do not condone violence, but I will admit, I have kicked them before, not any real distance, but enough that it jars the person's arm. When the question, I explain that it has rolled over my toes once already, I am not looking for it to happen more.
Some people have no idea that their bricks are dangerous. I see them try to lug them onto escalators, up and down stairs, weaving left and right, taking out anyone behind them who do not stop and let the idiot go.
What really frosts my nuts about those damned bags is the people who insist on rolling them "beside" them, rather than as much "behind them" as they could otherwise manage. This is a big issue on the sidewalks walking south on Bay Street, which are already narrowed for construction.
These people are absolutely oblivious to the fact that they are taking up about 4 ft of the 6 ft wide sidewalk, and inevitably walk slower than a granny with a walker. The only way it gets "better" is if they have a travel-companion, who is also walking beside them, completing the coup-de-sidewalk and they are both blissfully unaware that they together are the sole reason for the vast void ahead of them that should otherwise contain at least a handful of people walking to a train.
Just the other day I had to make a sharp turn around a couple who couldn't figure out if they wanted to stop and have a conversation or walk, actually I didn't have to it was just to let them know that their indecisiveness pissed me off.
You shoulder check when you change lanes in a car, why dont people walking have the same courtesy. I have taken to kicking heels and tripping those who decide to cut in front of me, as the ones who look first and see me approaching usually hold off until I am past.
Im just walking here swinging my arms and feet, if I should happen to kick you as you get in my way, it is not my fault.
Childish I know but also somehow satisfying.
I really don't know what it is about people and subway stations and train stations but it would seem that humanity, at least in Toronto breaks itself into a variety of different category of walkers.
There are the
PEOPLE THAT ARE GOING SOMEWHERE WALKERS: These are people that know where they are going put one foot in front of the other and actually walk to where it is they are going.
VOICE OF GOD WALKERS
You know these ones? Of course you do at some point you have been behind these people. They will be walking along, and then inexplicably stop abruptly, and then look up to the ceiling or sky, as though God is talking to them.
SLINGSHOT WALKERS
These are the walkers that are walking intently in one instance, but then invariably change to the opposite direction they were walking in an instant. Almost similarly to a Pacman video game when Pacman turns a corner in the maze only to see Inky bearing down on him, he immediately changes direction the other way. We've been behind these people before too, likely only to fall to the ground as we are bowled over by them.
THE I DON'T NEED TO LOOK IN FRONT OF ME TO KNOW WHERE I'M GOING WALKERS.
Interestingly enough these walkers have grown more and more prevolant now that smart phones are a regular part of society. Who knows what comes over them, but they are intent on challenging themselves to look at their phones, and perhaps even attempt chatting, playing video games, or online shopping, while they are walking. We have likely encountered these people before because even though you are in front of them, they just kept walking into you. I guess the only way to perhaps change the habits of this breed of walker is if they walk into a light pole, down an covered manhole or into traffic.
It would seem CJ that you encountered yet another breed of walker, but I will let you bestow the name on this type. I'm sorry you had such a start to your Friday, I would have been miffed, but don't know that I would have had the stones to kick the bag. Mad kudos to you, and to this blog.
Peace!
I'm thinking you're completely justified and I would have done the same thing, I can't stand the idiots that walk and look at their phone because most can't seem to do the 2 at once without almost coming to a complete stop, for gods sake move over to the side to text or look at your phone!, towing a bag only makes it more dangerous!
People in general have becomes huge DB's and have the nerve to get mad at you when THEY do something wrong!
I would have started a Bruce Lee-type fist fight if that happened to me.
Ha! How about the ones who suddenly stop in the doorway to check their mail? LOL
7 billion people in the world revolve around them, I suppose.
@ Anon 7:36
What about the ones who enter into a store, stop in the doorway and have a "panic attack" because they forgot that they were entering a store!
A few things I have noticed about walkers in Toronto...
* Maybe its the frustrated hockey fans/would be players out there, but Toronto is the first of any city that I've lived in that such a visible minority of people GO OUT OF THEIR WAY to brush up against/bump other people.
I've lived in real crowded cities :taken the trains of Tokyo where sardines have more room, hunted for bargains in the night markets of Seoul where the Ajummas all have elbows they seem to have whetted in pencil sharpeners, wandered the streets of Manhattan where crowds of total strangers seem to have mastered the ability to WALK IN FORMATION...
But nowhere have I seen what I first really witnessed the first week of taking up (temporary!) residence here 16 years ago.
People actually veer on sidewalks so that they can shoulder check other walkers that are either coming in the other direction or that they are overtaking.
Don't get me wrong - I have been bumped by the biggest and bestin Tokyo, New York, Vancouver, Boston, Montreal, Seoul and other places, but it never has been with the sense of INTENT.
The feel in Tokyo is more of "Hey, we're all in this together" (unless you're some salacious salaryman bent on frottage on the subway - but that is grist for a whole other rant).
In Seoul when you are bumped it is usually because you were between someone and something - and the feel you get is totally impersonal - its not that you aren't important, ist just the way to communicate to you that you are in the way (and God help you if you are between an Ajumma and a table of bargains).
These places are four to five times the population of Toronto, and some neighbourhoods and stations are 10 times as crowded as any Toronto station or sidewalk. Yet people only bump as a last resort.
So why is this?
IIn addition to the hockey vibe I mentioned above, it may also be due to the fact that Toronto's zeitgeist is NOT Big City, but so much wants to be... Toronto is a city of neighbourhoods. A clotting of small towns that so much wants to be one of the big shots...
Maybe these bozos who bump around think its expected of them as part of the grand aspirations of being a WORLD CLASS CITY.
* People here stop in doorways. A lot. In PATH corridors and at train stations people will pause on the threshold and just STAND THERE. Why? Who knows? Maybe they're waiting for their personal theme music/fanfare to announce their entrance?
* A related observation: There are people out there who actually think they are entitled to not open their own doors. They actually stand by a closed set of glass doors and wait for someone to open them from the other side. I have seen these types even jump through a door that someone is opening - ahead of teh opener.
When my kids were young - 1 and 3 - we had one of those mini-train strollers, one girl behind the other. I was shopping in the PATH system and approached a bank of doors. None were open, it was mid afternoon on a weekday and there was no real foot traffic. I paused by the far right side of the bank of doors to adjust a seat and hand a toy back to the youngest and I saw a guy just standing by the door on the other side, actually tapping his foot with impatience and glaring at me.
I was non-plussed - I wasn't blocking any door. Then it occurred to me - he was actually waiting for me to open the door so HE could come through. He had nothing in his hands, and looked fit enough.
When I opened the door he tried to rush through, but I blocked him and he started sputtering. Weird sense of door entitlement.
Wish I could say he was rare, but they are everywhere. The most common is the guy in front of you that does a kind of sideways glide without touching the closing door or nudging it to keep it open - so it slams in the face of the next person...
Ah what a rant - I got a new note for facebook... thanks for letting me vent...
I wasn't
I had to laugh at your comment deepfish. You're totally right. The door phenomenon is everywhere! I was at a restaurant in Scarborough a few weeks ago, opened the door to walk through and this lady sidled up beside me and quickly walked in ahead of me. I gave her a sarcastic "Ok, after you, I guess." And she just looked at me like I was nuts for being annoyed! Haha, I had to laugh afterwards cause it was just too bizarre.
I would normally say! Damn tourist watch out we're u going!
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