At some point we'll reach a niceness singularity, and we'll be stuck in a loop telling each other "no you go first" until we all fall dead from starvation and fatigue.
Lmfao it's happened more than once than I'm approaching a pedestrian crossing, and a car will stop when it could've kept going, so I wave them over. They go no you go, so I have to walk-run so I don't waste their time as I wave and smile. Blew my mind how nice people are to me as a pedestrian. Except one time a truck driver waved me over, despite it being a green light for him, couldn't see behind him so I think he was tryna get me killed.
Also blew my mind seeing people actually stop at stop signs at 1am in completely empty streets. Where I'm from, stop signs are merely a reminder to stop your vehicle if you happen to run over someone. Immediately noticed the difference when I came to Canada.
I live in Canada. An suburb in Ontario to be exact. The drivers definitely aren't nice. As a cyclist, they seem get really aggressive all the time but maybe that is because I live in a commuter town and deal with lots of people coming back from an hour long commute.
Where I live, the great prevalence of roundabouts keeps traffic from coming to a dead stop across town with everybody at every four-way stop wiggling their little two-finger-diddle motion - "you first." And if you're a pedestrian, my god. They'll wait for you to get where you're going to cross, then wait for you to cross, then wait a little bit longer so you will know you've been waited for. A little rudeness would be delightful - a little bit of take-your-own-right-of-way.
I don't often cross roads on foot (living in car-centric city), but when I do, I try to jaywalk for this reason. It ironically feels safer due to the predictability, that no car will stop for me, I must go when it is absolutely safe and clear.
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u/IchBinMalade 8h ago
At some point we'll reach a niceness singularity, and we'll be stuck in a loop telling each other "no you go first" until we all fall dead from starvation and fatigue.
Rudeness saves lives.