The rules of the road

Well, actually the rules of the hallway...

I am not the most patient walker. I like to walk at a brisk pace. I have long legs, wear sensible shoes and am usually on a tight schedule. Ambling through crowds is not my thing. If I were a horse, I would have a free walk of "10".

When I visit the hospital, I have to go down a fairly narrow hallway to get from the parkade to the ICU. It is a boring walk, past offices and the dentistry area. There are no horses to look at, so why walk slowly. Plus, once there, I am eager to see my dad, so not interested in dawdling.

Sometimes there are stressed families walking with a typically elderly loved one who hog the width of the hall. I am ok with that. I can see that they are a unit who walk together for strength, and understanding that gives me patience. But there there are people like today: on the way in, there was a lady who managed to take up the entire hall...not because she was overly large, but because she was walking dead center in the hallway with elbows jutted out. And she walked slow...like she was on her way back to a job she hated and wanted every moment of her walk to last. I think she was a nurse. I really wanted a horn to honk or to yell out "slower traffic keep right!"

Then on the way back, there were two people who were obviously together as they were talking loudly to each other about the person they had come to visit...yet the man was about 5 meters in front of the woman. Not only did I want to pass them so I could walk a normal speed, but I also did not want to listen to what I considered to be a private conversation. Only they were walking so far apart from each other, that passing one of them, and then yielding to oncoming traffic, would have meant I would be between them. That would have been odd. So I waddled along while they discussed why Tim wasn't awake yet.

Walking in Malls, particularly around Christmas are enough to send me over the edge. Particularly if I go when the "Age Challenged" are there....walking shoulder to shoulder in a group of chums hogging the entire hallway as they chit chat about who likes who like no one else in the mall matters. I vastly prefer shopping during school hours! Malls are also famous for people who just stand around in the middle of the hall, chatting or gazing about lost. Pull off to the side if you have stalled!

It just makes sense to me to pass left to left, that slower traffic stay to the right, and that teenagers be banned from public places. These few simple rules would make walking in public so much nicer for those of us who have places to go and people to see.

Karen