Footsteps

Walking in the City

I've lived in large cities for almost all of my adult life, and I walk everywhere I go. The sidewalk is how I get to everywhere I go, and I know how to handle myself on them. I'm a very fast walker, always have been. I'm not saying I'm the fastest walker who ever walked the face of the Earth, but most of the time, I'm the one who's walking the fastest. Being such a fast walker, I can almost always get to where I'm going in a short amount of time, that is unless I get stuck behind thoughtless people doing thoughtless things. We've all encountered these people, probably many times, most likely at a time when you needed to get somewhere fast. That's when it always happens to me, when I'm already running late and the last thing I need is to be slowed down or stopped altogeher by thoughtless people doing thoughtless things. These people stop suddenly at the bottom of escalators, preventing anyone else from getting off and forcing everyone else to rethink their exit strategy. They stop in the middle of busy intersections, preventing anyone driving or walking from moving past them. Groups of them spread out across entire sidewalks, walking side by side, blocking everything and everyone in their path. Yeah, we've all encountered these people. Some days, they're everywhere, and it seems like there's no escaping them. They block our path and impede our forward movement, leaving us helpless to do anything other than shuffle behind them with our blood running through our veins, seething with anger that fills our soul and consumes our being. These people irritate everyone on the sidewalk, and for some, that irritation can turn into anger and the anger can turn into rage that allow feelings to escalate as fantasies of committing violence upon the offending and inconsiderate sidewalk blocker or overt expressions of hostility and aggression. I used to think the problem was me, that I needed to be more patient, more understanding. That is probably true, but the problem is definitely not me.

Sidewalk Rage

The rage you might experience in these situations has a name. Some call it Pedestrian Aggressiveness Syndrome, while others call it Intermittent Explosive Disorder, but the less formal name is simply sidewalk rage. No matter what you call it, we all agree you are not alone in feeling it. Sidewalk rage is a syndrome characterized by feelings of intense anger accompanied by aggressive thoughts or behavior toward people who get in your way (Leon & Nahl, 2010). It can manifest in any number of ways depending on the individual, ranging from feeling impatience when someone blocks your path to muttering under breath at them to making irrational assumptions about them to having fantasies of violence to overt expression of hostility and aggression (angry stares, mean faces, rude gestures) to intentionally bumping into them or walking fast to get ahead of them then cutting them off (Quigley, 2011). Sidewalk rage involves any thoughts or behavior that escalate to feelings of rage toward other pedestrians. I used to think I was the only one who got angry at other pedestrians. I thought I was the problem. As it turns out, not only am I not the problem but millions of people experience some degree of sidewalk rage every day.

Evolutionary psychologists view sidewalk rage from a different perspective. Starting with the question of why so many otherwise normal people experience the same intense emotions when forced to navigate around irrational, obstructive walking behavior, these researchers believe sidewalk rage is a mechanism for enforcing social norms (Szalavitz, 2011). They view normal pedestrian behavior that allows a large number of people to use the same sidewalk at the same time as cooperative social behavior, which is beneficial to the entire society. From this perspective, any behavior that disrupts this behavior, no matter how slight or how brief, is perceived as a selfish violation of the cooperative social norm of sharing a sidewalk with many other people. The aggression that characterizes sidewalk rage causes some people to act in a way to discourage behavior that endangers other members of the society (Saltzman, 2011). This perspective views sidewalk rage as altruistic punishment, altruistic because it serves to protect a societal norm and punishment because it comes at a personal cost with no chance of personal benefit since any response would undoubtedly be negative.

Sidewalk Etiquette

The traditional perspective on sidewalk rage views it as a mental illness requiring treatment, which involves intense self-reflection in order to determine the true cause of the rage, an ever-present underlying anger just waiting to be unleashed. This is bullshit. This perspective doesn't even consider the behavior of the person who blocks the sidewalk. Sidewalk rage wouldn't even exist if not for thoughtless people doing thoughtless things in the middle of the sidewalk. The person with the mental illness is the stupid selfish jerk who blocks the sidewalk because they don't bother to think about how their actions affect other people. When somebody acts in a way that they unexpectedly block the path of another person, they violate a set of unwritten rules that govern behavior on sidewalks. Maybe they're not aware of these rules. Maybe they are aware of them but don't care. Maybe you're one of these people, and you don't care either. Either way, I feel it might be helpful to look at these unwritten rules, some of which I have written myself.

Stay right. In this country, we do things to the right of other people. We drive on the right-hand side of the road, and we walk on the right-hand side of the sidewalk. You wouldn't drive your car in the left lane of a two-lane road, especially if another car is coming at you from the opposite direction. Don't do it when you're walking. When you stay on the right side of the sidewalk, it allows people walking in the other direction a clear path to get to wherever they're going.

Listen. We don't walk in our own individual vacuums that prevent us from hearing anything other than our own thoughts. That would be awesome, but it's not what happens. It is important to listen when we walk because sound cues play a subtle but important role in our ability to sense how close other people are to us even if we can't see them, like when they are behind us. Whether it's the sound of a conversation between two people or the heavy breathing of a heavy walker, every sound we hear when walking on a sidewalk helps us establish our position in relation to everyone else.

Keep up. Pedestrian traffic has a rhythm, and everyone on the sidewalk is part of that rhythm. When one person falls behind, the rhythm changes, and everyone on the sidewalk must alter their own internal rhythm to compensate. Instead of making everyone else perform a complex set a calculations to compensate for your interruption of the sidewalk's rhythm, just keep up with it. If, for some reason, you're not able to, just step aside to allow everyone behind you to stay connected.

Pay attention. Some people are good at multitasking. Some people are not. Either way, doing more than one thing when you're walking on a sidewalk makes you a less attentive pedestrian, and it makes you less aware of what's going on around you. The more you multitask, the less you are aware of your environment and the people in your environment. Even if the sidewalk is not busy, pay attention to where you're going and who is also going in that direction. It doesn't require constant vigilance. A little awareness goes a really long way.

No wheels. Sidewalks are for pedestrians, not bicyclists, not rollerbladers, not skateboarders. Wheels are great. They enanble you to move faster than your feet can move you. They also enable you to move faster than the flow of pedestrian traffic, and this is a problem. Going faster than the flow of foot traffic is worse than going slower. It's nice that you've found a way to get to where you're going fast but get there in the bike lane. You'll be less irritated, I'll be less irritated, and everyone on the sidewalk will be happy they don't have to put up with your nonsense.

No conga lines. There is no need for five people to walk side by side on a sidewalk. You block everyone walking in both directions. It's rude, and it's stupid. You can't even hear one another if you are on either end of the pedestrian conga line. At the risk of sounding like a misogynist, it's always a group of women who do this, women from the suburbs who always look like it's their first night together without their husbands, which makes them so happy they need to block the sidewalk to show everyone how happy they are. It's ridiculous. Walk like normal people, two or three side by side. This allows you to make room for others when necessary, it's polite, and you can all hear one another.

Walk. A sidewalk is not a good place to stand around doing nothing and looking like an idiot. If you stop walking, just step aside. It's so easy, and it allows everyone behind you to keep walking. There are millions of good reasons to stop walking and stand for a minute. Maybe you want to take a picture. Maybe you got a call from your sister who has juicy gossip about your cousin, and you want to savor every word. Whatever the reason, get out of the way when you do it.

Viewing sidewalk rage as a mental illness is so short sighted I don't even know where to begin. It ignores the biggest part of the problem: the cause. I also reject the notion that people who experiene sidewalk rage are the ones who need to change. Why would we need to change anything? We don't cause the problem. Why the fuck would it be up to us to solve the problem when the solution is so simple. All it takes is a little bit of common sense and a little common decency.

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A Concession

I will concede, however, that the rage in my sidewalk rage comes not from the person who blocks my path but from my own internal thoughts and perceptions. I view bad sidewalk behavior as rude and those who behave badly on sidewalks as selfish pricks. I understand they block my path for only a few seconds, and the thoughtless person doing the thoughtless thing who blocks my path for a few seconds will have no measurable impact on when I arrive at my destination. No harm, no foul. I also understand that no matter how I react to the bad behavior, it's not going to change anything in the moment and it's not going to change anything in the future. So, why bother to react at all? I have no control over anyone else's behavior, but I have complete control over my own. I realize that, when I allow myself to become irritated by someone blocking my path, the only person who suffers is the only person who even knows I'm irritated. Me. I also realize that the best and easiest way to combat sidewalk rage is to prevent it from happening altogether by grabbing ahold of myself when I begin to feel irritated, slapping myself back into reality, and going on about my way.

The Hidden Lane

Slow walkers don't bother me. Everybody has their own pace of doing things, whether it's walking or anything else. What bothers are thoughtless people doing thoughtless things in the middle of a busy sidewalk. When I moved to San Francisco, one of the first things I realized about my fellow San Francisans was that they tend to be slow walkers. That was more than twenty years ago, and in that time, I tried so many different techniques to deal with the fact that I was almost always walking faster than everyone else on the sidewalk. One day, I finally realized I was not the problem, they were, and that realization came another, that I needed to rethink the whole situation from a different perspective. Instead of learning to maneuver around them, which defined all of my previous strategies, I realized all I needed to do was stay our of their way. That's when I discovered the best kept pedestrian secret ever, a place on the sidewalk where nobody ever walks, a place that is always clear and nobody will block your path, a place that you can call your own because you don't have to share it with anyone. I call this space the hidden lane, a thin slither of sidewalk between the parking meters and the cars. It's not quite wide enough to stay in all the time, but it's always good for a couple of car lengths at least, enough to pass by any disturbance that may spring up unexpectedly. On busy sidewalks, I never stray too far from the hidden lane, stepping into and out of its peace and serenity as often as possible. Even when it's on the left-hand side of the sidewalk, which forces me to walk in the wrong side of the sidewalk, I take comfort in the knowledge that I can jump into the hidden lane whenever I want. The hidden lane is my magic wand for a rageless walk to wherever I'm going.

Works Cited

Leon, James & Nahl, Diane. (2010). Pedestrian Aggression Syndrome. Journal of Psychology, 154(2), 13-16.

Quigley, Robert. (2011). "Sidewalk Rage Is Serious Business". Retrieved from https://www.themarysue.com/sidewalk-rage/

Saltzman, Maria. (2011). "Sidewalk Rage: Mental Illness or Altruistic Punishment?"

Szalavitz, Maia. (2011). "Sidewalk Rage: Mental Illness or ‘Altruistic Punishment?" Retrieved from https://healthland.time.com/2011/02/17/sidewalk-rage-mental-illness-or-altruistic-punishment/

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