The Lost Art of Walking

One of the joys of spending time on a university campus is also one of the greatest pains. Lots and lots of walking. I like walking around the UWO campus. For the most part, its a fairly attractive campus, with the possible exceptions of the UCC Concrete Beach, TD Waterhouse Stadium, and the construction around Thompson arena. But most of the rest of the campus is fairly attractive.

But when did people forget how to walk? In the past week, I've seen students walk into the middle of traffic without even checking for oncoming traffic. I don't know if these kids are drunk, stoned, unfamiliar with the notion of automobiles, or just so infused with such an inflated sense of entitlement that they believe the laws of both physics and the road shouldn't apply to them because their daddy is a lawyer/doctor/some other arrogant and often meaningless career, but I'm shocked. It seems that every year, at least one Western student dies in traffic, either riding a bike or as a pedestrian. And you know what...they probably deserve it. Whats more amazing is that the rest of the brain-dead children don't learn from their mistakes.

Also upsetting is the inability of people to understand the relatively simple concept of traffic flow. Sidewalks are constructed to handle roughly two people side by side. Perhaps three, depending on how anorexic the people are. But let's just say two is the average.

With that in mind, why do people feel they have the right to walk side by side as people walk towards them? It doesn't matter if they're chatting to a friend, or passing somebody, the fact remains that these people are getting in my way. Whats more annoying is that they see there are people walking towards them, and they don't feel any obligation to move out of the way. Its the same sense of entitlement that permeates almost every aspect of UWO life.

Here's the problem with the walkers, and they don't understand. I'm a fairly large man. In fact, given my travels around campus, I would say I am one of the larger men at Western. (Thats not bragging, as one should not be proud of one's morbid obesity.) I also carry a large duffel bag, often laden with at least three or four heavy books. Should I so desire, I'm sure I could easily send one (or more) of these children sprawling into the mud like a doughboy crawling through No-Man's Land. I choose not to, however, mainly because I like to make people think I'm a nice guy.

Its even more interesting when I'm walking around campus with my buddy Presto. Presto happens to be in a motorized wheelchair, which certainly poses some interesting options for navigating the hilly/stair-dependent UWO campus. When we're trying to make our way across campus, I'm amazed that people don't realize that Presto's chair has the potential to inflict damage. ITS A METAL CHAIR, POWERED BY AN ELECTRIC MOTOR!!! At what point do you not realize that this machine can hurt them? Look, I'm not expecting them to part like the Red Sea, but it would be nice if people would realize that there are 10,000 other people on campus.

One of these days, I'm going to just walk where I want to walk, without considering what may happen to other people. If kids get knocked into the dirt, too bad. If some little plastic gets pushed out of the way, too bad. If some moron gets their cellphone knocked out of their hands, too bad.

I probably won't do this, but its a nice thought.