Posted Aug 22, 2011, 8:06 PM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Mar 2011
Posts: 1,639
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I see it in drivers - pretty much daily - who slam on their brakes and come to a dead stop, then signal for a left turn, but only as they're already in the turn....and I'm halfway up their tailpipe. Or veeerrrry slowly moving over two lanes to get to a turn they forgot to line up for. To lazy to signal, or drive around the block.
I might own and drive a car, but when I'm walking - and I try to do that more and more often - I move across the street quickly, and motion for cars to make their right turn if I'm on the corner not planning to cross.
When I'm actually behind the wheel, I see people slowly sauntering across the street at crosswalks, taking up to a minute to get to the other side. Not elderly - young people. That, and people standing like zombies at a corner waiting to cross, their eyes glued on the walk/don't walk sign across from them, unaware of anything going on around them - such as cars slowly trying to make a right turn. They're just waiting to bolt like a horse out of the gate, and can't notice a whole vehicle with blinker on two feet from them.
I now vehicles are supposed to look out for pedestrians, but at least look around a bit if you're walking.
Yes, that rant, and many more things. People are in their own little world, for sure. Not everyone, but too many people. And the unbelievable persistence of people trying to ban things and not get other things built is amazing. Except that money and time and effort is put into stopping things they don't like and protecting themselves and themselves only ("I don't want neighbours looking in my windows!"....where doesn't that happen, honestly???)), rather than bettering the overall community.
No one can be bothered to support a cause or do some community service, donate to something beyond them or pick up litter, but if one's view is at stake, or a nearby house is within zoning but two feet taller, etc., they'll go to committee, form groups, put together powerpoint presentations, hire lawyers, call the media for a sad-sack picture of suffering - the whole nine yards.
And they'll say it's for all of Ottawa and label themselves activists, but when every sentence starts with "What about MY.....?", you have to question their motives.
Basically an unwillingness to accept reality, an unwillingness to compromise or see things another way, and a complete aversion to any change. It's a weird psychological phenomenon, the best example being Stegasaurus Ken Grey and his very small number of NIMBY supporters. You could write a paper on it, for sure.
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