Thoughts while walking in a mall...

Malls are undoubtedly one of the greater environments for "people watching." I have always found at least some element of a mall overly interesting on any given day. Usually my interest is sparked by the "children friendly" sections. Usually right outside of department stores, these quarter fed respite providers never cease to amaze me, especially since they are obviously simple machines that attract bounds of attention by toddlers and the like.

There are also these small brightly colored ponies on electric wheels that children can also ride on in a small corral in the center of the causeway. I don't think that parents understand that their children look like little shits on these things. But alas, I don't want to go too far into child attractions today...

Over the past year or so, I've been sudo developing this idea that people walk like they drive. Most notably, if you look at large walkways at airports, theme parks, malls, sidewalks, piers, etc., you might notice that there are two distinct "lanes" of human traffic. Chances are, if you walking and you feel like you're the only one going that direction, you're probably the only one going in that direction. Don't be a salmon and swim upstream... Just like driving, the boundaries of the causeway are usually to our right hand sides, and "opposing traffic" is usually to our left (obviously this analogy only works for some countries). The people closest to the edge of the boundary are going to be going the slowest because they are the ones popping in and out of stores/terminals/etc., just like individuals coming off and on exit and entrance ramps on a freeway on in and out of driveways.

Some people "run out into traffic" and then walk really slowly, pissing off everybody who had rhythm behind them. Other times, people may walk in a group in a horizontal line so that people behind can't pass them without entering opposing traffic. Starting to sound familiar? Kids are told not to run, like teens and young adults are told not to speed, and people who are lost just walk around in circles slowing down everybody. There are fast walkers who weave in and out of steady walkers, there are elderly walkers who should really check their blind spots before "switching lanes", there are people who walk and talk on their cell phones really loudly when they should be paying attention to something else (their child on the magical pony perhaps?).

Obviously this hypothesis would require that I then watch that person drive to see if they drive like they walk. But I think that regardless of whether an aggressive walker = an aggressive driver, or a passive walker = a passive driver, we still sub-consciously adhere to basic "road rules" while walking.

Nuff-said...