REVOLUTION..... AGAINST QUEING AT RIGHT ANGLES TO TICKET / CASH MACHINE

[KidKruger]

I feel the time is right for a revolution, a revolution in behavioural patterns, initially within SE22 and then perhaps rolled-out across the country and then, dare I say it, the entire world....

E.G.

Some days I get the train from East Dulwich railway station and, to get to the entrance for London-bound trains I walk around a queue of many several folks intent on queing at an exact 90 degrees to the wall with the machine they are using.

Sometimes they form a queue of several yards, past the post box so I'm actually walking away from the station entrance, to the bus stop and then back to the entrance I'm headed for.

The worst I've seen is Monday morning at ED station ticket desk, the queue came onto the pavement and right across it to the kerb and the people only 'bent' their queue alongside the kerb because failing to do so may have led to being crushed by a bus !

The cashpoints along Lordship Lane sometimes have queues across the entire pavement too, whilst there's no collective intention to do this and whilst it's not a single person's intention, can it be resolved ?

Of course, people are always very nice and courteous and happily stand to one side when asked politely so I have no issue with passing through the queue per se.

I suspect perhaps that people believe if they don't stand immediately behind the person in front they will be perceived as having no 'claim' to a place in the queue and therefore liable to 'lose' their 'place'.

I know this is not a world-changing event or a critical issue, I know it's not a physically demanding feat to walk around these nice people or politely step through them but it's a curious spectacle and causes me to question whether we could re-educate people to queue alongside the wall rather than away from it ?

Or maybe even if enough of the EDF readers saw this they could start the 'revolution' here in ED...

Is this a specific English/UK phenomenon or would it be done differently in (for example) America, Japan, Nigeria ?

Your esteemed comments would be held in high regard for at least the forseeable future.

[Sherwick]

KidKruger Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> > Your esteemed comments would be held in high

> regard for at least the forseeable future.

::burp::

[PeckhamRose]

You are trying to change the behaviour of the Great British Public.

The same people who think it acceptable to:

procreate and then wonder how to bring up the resulting new human beings;

throw their litter out a car or just on to the street;

wander across the road talking on their mobile;

drive recklessly;

smoke, and blow smoke into the face of someone coughing badly whilst asking if they are alright (Saw that today).

Add your own examples!

Good luck!

[Moos]

KidKruger, I have seen attempts to queue intelligently, and I fear that they have undermined any case homo sapiens may have for being just that little bit more on the ball than homo floriensis.

At London Bridge, considerate people queueing for the 48/149 stop sometimes a 10-foot gap to allow other travellers to use the pedestrian crossing and start the queue again behind the crossing. This invariably leads to other people turning up, looking at the break in the queue and assuming it's actually the end of the queue, which in turn causes drama.

Equally, when people intelligently and considerately form a single queue for multiple ticket windows or cashpoints, there's always someone who'll assume everyone just hasn't seen the 'other' window/point and just barges in.

Summary: people are fuckwits. I write this in the sure and certain knowledge that we are not allowed to say this any more.

[SeanMacGabhann]

  Quote

;-)

[Huguenot]

"I fear that they have undermined any case homo sapiens may have for being just that little bit more on the ball than homo floriensis"

Chortle.

[KidKruger]

Moos:

I have seen said queueing scenarios for 48/149 bus at LB and other places.

So is the 'need' to queue right up the ass of the guy ahead driven by 'fear' of losing one's place alone, or is there some other, more sinister predicates at work....