Anyone here get Pavement Rage?

Post Reply New Topic

It is so uncanny how this is exactly what I experience. Are we really the ones trapped in our own worlds???

I run up escalators that are going down.

It makes me angry when someone slugs me with a pavement slab

Oh, in the worst way. I get it in grocery stores (with no pavement at all) all the time, because I get in there when it's busiest (when I can get transportation). Crowded sidewalks are just as bad, though.

I get sidewalk rage when typical young people jump in front of my and make ignorant noises.

Oh well, it even has a name... I get this feeling a lot, especially in the place where I'm living now. People can just stop in the middle of the road to look at the shop windows or for whatever reason, sometimes no reason at all. Well, I don't need to go into details, it's all been said above.
Sometimes I really wish we had special lights to show if we want to make an abrupt turn, stop or do some other thing that can mess up the pavement traffic. Cars do, why can't we?

I hate crowds! Enough said.

Not really but I have suffered something similar in junior high and high school because I walked so quickly and everyone else ahead of me would walk so slowly and it got on my nerves. It also didn't help because of the time limit we had to get form class to class. I actually got into a couple of fights in junior high when people deliberately walked really slow in front of me and I pushed them in order to fem to start walking faster.

What like this lady?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YW0jREZdXkw[/youtube]

Oh yes I get very annoyed when I'm out, it's people who block my way, walk too slow etc. Oh and supermarkets, I get so angry when people stand in the middle of an aisle talking to someone else blocking anyone from getting through. I get annoyed when people leave their trolleys in the way too and I get in an arse with my husband if he does it too, like if he leaves it blocking a shelf I'll shout at him "no you don't leave it there in someone's way, put it here on this corner, not blocking anything but still allowing people through the aisle". He's used to my anger in that situation and on the most part remembers not to do it(or 99% of the time I have the trolley) and if someone is blocking the way and I'm getting upset, he takes the trolley off me and ploughs through them, he doesn't give a crap what people think of him so will happily annoy others to stop me getting so stressed / upset.

On the pavement though I walk fast, and weave in and out of people but if it's a narrow area and someone slow is stopping me I can feel my rage rising and if I don't get past fast I start huffing and puffing and if it's a particularly bad day eventually I'll start swearing. It usually doesn't get that bad because I know that's not fair on other people most of whom are elderly so I tend to just dig my nails into my hand, bite my lip and fume silently whilst waiting for a way to get past. I always murmur 'for f**k's sake' once I'm past the person /people responsible.

Think there is some synchronicity going on here, I had a bad day when you posted this yesterday for this reason, so I DO know what you mean & understand why you would react this way.

My own nemeses at the moment are pavement cyclists.

I get very jumpy and angry at sudden physical threats, so cars, cycles or mobility scooters that zoom too close to me make me very angry, fearful & that brings out the aggressive response.
To me, these cyclists (usually grown men) go too fast and too close to me, and on a street crowded with posts, barriers & other obstacles there is often precious little space. So I feel like i'm about to be mown down by these lemonbrains. That makes me mad.

Yesterday by the time i'd had 4 near misses, one going at least 20 mph skimming my coat, and having started off with the polite 'please slow down', it did get onto some shouted swearing (which was my self defense reaction kicking in - but i'm not happy about it).

Unfortunately the sedate last cyclist who I then encountered, but who also didn't move out the way, just was the last straw & I put my hands in front of me and pleaded angrily with them to not to come near me. The people behind me were quite amused by this, so that made me even more annoyed.

I know I tend to verbalise frustrations, but I want a better way to deal with it. Unfortunately it's such a physical instant reaction for me (and possibly others who've posted similar things) that it's important to understand that we can feel very threatened by these things, so no wonder it ramps up the anxiety.

Anger is related to anxiety. You can even get 'anger attacks' which are akin to panic attacks. It's a self-protective response that is there for a good reason, but the expression and use of it can become inappropriate or a problem. So it's good to find your triggers & try to defuse them or avoid them. I am not sure I can avoid the cyclist t*ssers so not sure what to try there.

Anyone got any good anger management tips - for crowds or just in general?

I usually get angry if there is some underlying stress. I think part of this pavement anger is anxiety. I get such conflciting feelings about people I just end up hating them.

I lol'd at escalator lady. I get museum rage as well as pavement rage but I internalize it like all my rage.

I end up hating everyone for that reason :/ It happens regardless of the fact that I would love to love people.

I have done the "f**k's sake" thing on one or two occasions. I just can't seem to do it without the other person reacting in a very vicious way, often by threatening violence. I don't seem to be able to show pavement rage without getting pavement rage back in a disproportionate way. So I just have to keep pavement rage under as much control as possible, and seem to have to mind my P's and Q's more than what other people do.

That's made more important also because I live in a city where people more often than not seem to think their excrement doesn't stink. They seem to have a total unawareness of the world outside their own jacksies (or mobile phones) up which their big heads are stuck, or at least that's shown in the way they walk in the street. People walk AT you, rather than round you, and another relevant phrase is "playing chicken" except it's with aggressive pedestrians who force you to play chicken with them, not vehicles.

Many people have been playing chicken with me lately WHILE PUSHING INFANTS IN BUGGIES, as infants - new life coming into the world - are involved it's no doubt a damning slur on the way my reproductive health is perceived just by people glimpsing me in the street, and obviously the idea is that I can take the blame if anything happens to the kid if I have a collision or I'm wrongfooted etc.

Lately I moved back a little on a pavement where a mother and child in buggy were coming towards me, got back to a point where the pavement was very wide, and the mother still tried to plough a course straight into me despite the pavement being very wide at that point. She only swerved away at the very, very last moment.

On another recent occasion a man followed behind me fast, right on my heels, with an infant in a buggy, and I couldn't get away quickly enough. I had to jump into the roadway to stop an accident that was waiting to happen. Of course the main worry here is for the safety of the kid, both from the 'playing chicken' game and for protection from such stupid parents in general.

Unfortunately I have become an extremely defensive pedestrian in the way I walk, who'll move aside or wait for example if a large flow of foot traffic is coming the opposite way to me, because of the likelihood being so high that people will threaten violence to me or force me to play chicken with me.

Last edited by Keeno on 18 Nov 2011, 7:40 am, edited 1 time in total.

I always wonder if I am the only one who notices people playing chicken. It seems so very common, and happens even when there is ample room for everyone. What is the purpose of creating this psychodrama? How do most people react to such behavior? And yes, I feel like whenever I express my displeasure with someone's behavior toward me (whether on the sidewalk or not), they want to beat me down. Maybe I am not exhibiting a "scary face" or some BS?