Making and Taking Space [NOT 4/10/24]

students with yardsticks and rulers
Students of 8th Division school using rulers, yardsticks, and measuring tape in school yard, Washington, D.C. / Frances Benjamin Johnson / ca. 1899 / https://www.loc.gov/item/2001703709/

Maneuvering on the X, Y and Z axes

I thought about launching into a driving rant, but decided I’d go in a different direction to talk about people’s ability to move (or not) in space.

What got me started was trying to get through a parking lot and encountering the dreaded back in parkers. It’s not inherently bad practice – if nobody else is around, then it’s fine. And if someone is really good at, it doesn’t take more time than pulling in.

But in a crowded lot with everyone being held up by a person who is bad at backing up, it’s huge pain for everyone, and increases the odds of parking lot gridlock.

What Are Your Maneuvering Stories?

Do you have situations where people muck things up about getting around? Or where they’ve gotten better? Maybe once a year I’ll stop in to a local Marshalls, and they’ve gone to a single snaking aisle which feeds multiple registers, instead of forcing everyone to play roulette, pick a register, and hope it’s a fast line.

On the other hand, one of my local liquor stores has a single line for multiple registers, but for reasons I can never understand a bunch of times the first person waiting for a free register will wait about 15 feet away. You can move closer and make it easier for people to line up behind you!

poster about lining up
An orderly line is a safe line! / Federal Art Project / ca. 1941 – 1943 / source: https://www.loc.gov/item/98516617

So what about you and moving through space? Any particularly dreaded escalators? Do you ride a set of elevators where everyone magically makes the appropriate amount of space for every new person?

Or what about animals? Do you have a cat who can leap perfectly onto a shelf between two fragile vases, or a dog who can run full speed through the woods without hitting a tree?

Do you go to walking or biking paths in a local park? Are people considerate and call out if they want to pass you, and everyone stays on the right and passes on the left? Or is it a rugby-style free for all scrum? Have you dealt with airport security recently? Was TSA keeping everyone moving and in a good mood, or was it turning into a big swamp? Did you have to deal with people pulling three bags on wheels that were clearly too big for carryons, blocking the gate and desperately hoping they didn’t have to check them?

Or maybe you have a memory of an athlete like Barry Sanders or Allen Iverson who seemed to be able to move through space like nobody else on the planet. Or take a look at Johan Cruyff weaving and dodging through a crowded soccer pitch, seeing how spaces open and close better than anyone else.

Share with us, Deadsplintermovers, any experiences you’ve had good, bad or ugly where you’ve tried to move through the world, or watched people succeed or fail. Are there places you like because you can slip through like a watermelon seed being squeezed between two fingers, or places you dread because everything moves slower than a snail engulfed in molasses? Tell us what you got.

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9 Comments

  1. One of the craziest things I dealt with was someone didn’t set their parking brake on their truck and it rolled down their driveway just as I was about to pass that house.

    I had 3 choices

    1 Accelerate as fast as I can so I just miss the truck.

    2 Swerve, go into the ditch at 55kph and get hurt/wreck my car.

    3 Brake and smash into the truck and get hurt or killed.

    I did 1 and made it.

    The reason why I could make that decision is something called situational awareness. Usually uttered by Archer Fans or fight jocks. The idea is based on the OODA loop (Observe, Orientate, Decide and Act.) The idea is to have a tight OODA loop where you act on split second timing based on quick observations, fast reactions and decision making.

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