Insanity: Traffic Congestion and Courtesy:

Ever been walking down a sidewalk and find a group walking shoulder to shoulder who refuses to have at least one person move to the side when you're approaching, causing you to either step into the street, on the property next to the sidewalk (which is more often than not soaked from rain or melting snow), into the street, or having to bump into the person (which usually ends with you apologizing or ignoring them instead of them apologizing)?  How about trying to get to something in a store and finding two or three carts in an aisle all going the same way blocking off your passage to said item?  Pedestrian Traffic Congestion, we've all encountered it.  The thing is, it's insane.  I'm sure at one time or another either you've seen someone complain to the offenders about it, or done it personally yourself.  Yet, the offenders still continue after you or the 'complaining jerk' goes away.  What drives people to do this, knowing that much of society despises them for this?  How about people who pull their bike up onto the sidewalk?  Depending on a city's blue law, this may actually be not only dangerous, but illegal.  How about the flow of traffic in general?  In much of the world, traffic always stays on the left side of the road, sidewalk or other path, but in America we use the right side.  There are a few rules of etiquette to using a road, sidewalk or aisle:

1.  Stay to the appropriate side of the path you belong to.  Don't take up the entire space.  Your friends can still hear you if you're behind them unless the wind is howling too loud, they have headphones on, or they are deaf.  In any of those three cases, they wouldn't hear you anyway, and if they read lips you'd have to be in front of them instead of at their side anyways.  If you're in a store, put your cart on the side you are on, and use the correct side so everyone can get through.  If you're on a bike, stay on the side of the road going with traffic.  Going against it means your speed plus the speed of someone heading toward you are multiplied in the case of an accident, and they have less time to react if you take a spill.  If you go with traffic and fall, at least those in cars can see you wobbling up ahead and take the time to either try to slow down, stop or move out of the lane if possible.  If they don't, you still have a better chance surviving instead of being windshield or grill pizza.

2.  If you're going to text or read, either step off the flow of traffic, or keep it up so you can use peripheral vision to see motion and its cessation ahead of you.  Looking down at it is not only bad for your posture but means you can't see as far ahead of you and might walk right into a bus or a telephone pole.  Which, to be honest, would hurt you and make others either laugh or rush over to help you, depending on the severity of your impact and their sense of dark humor.  Don't rely on someone else to help you regardless, because there might not be someone around if you accidentally wander into street traffic.

3.  Don't litter.  Seriously.  It's not that hard to just keep your trash until there is some place to dispose of it properly.  Depending on what you throw away, not only do you face a large fine and possible community service picking up other people's refuse, but you could injure someone if it is glass or metal or something else and they accidentally step on it.

4.  Don't leave children and pets unattended or on a leash that's too long if they aren't trained yet.  Your little loved ones, human and animal, might wander into traffic, bother someone who might abuse them or you, or they could be abducted.  Not to mention,the disgusting things they might eat and get sick from.

5.  Report problems with the path.  If you're on a road, sidewalk or other path and you find a pothole, pitting or edge that someone can trip on, tell those responsible for its upkeep.  Not only do you help ensure you don't yourself fall prey later, you help others using the same path, and might keep unnecessary lawsuits from being brought to court.  Most times regulations will find that it is within the allowed limits and therefore the claim is denied, however, if someone is worried about a lawsuit and doesn't already know the current specifics of the regulations, they will repair it rather than risk it.  Unless it is the city, because more often than not they'll ignore it or patch it with substandard materials, but a patch is still better than nothing.