People of character do the right thing even if no one else does, not because they think it will change the world but because they refuse to be changed by the world.Read Josephson's article here.
Showing posts with label shopping carts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shopping carts. Show all posts
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Footnote: On Shopping Carts
If you were interested in my 7/10/09 post, Red Lights and Shopping Carts, you might be interested in Michael Josephson's take on why you should return shopping carts to their corrals. It's not to impress anyone:
Friday, July 10, 2009
Red Lights and Shopping Carts
When I drive in the Chicago suburbs, I invariably encounter people who don't really seem to understand they're piloting a couple of tons of steel around the streets and highways. They frequently seem to be preoccupied with other activities, often involving a cell phone, and to be blithely unaware of the existence of other vehicles. I think it's just too easy to get a driver's license.
As a bike rider, I pay close attention to other traffic on the streets, and it's appalling how many people think stop signs are just advisory, and roll on by.
Right turns on red, are another cause of concern for pedestrians, bicyclists, and other vehicles. A ridiculous number of drivers don't recognize that right turns on red are supposed to only be made after stopping not instead of stopping: "drivers must come to a complete stop and yield the right-of-way to oncoming traffic and pedestrians before turning" ). Because so many people don't seem to feel the need to stop before turning, or pull out without yielding to oncoming traffic, I think the right turn on red rules are among the worst rules enacted during my adulthood. I can't remember when the rules were changed to allow turning red at stop lights, but I'm pretty sure it was after I took driver training in high school back in the Pleistocene. I suppose it's too much to expect that people who don't stop at stop lights will stop at stop signs...
Too many people seem to think the rules only apply to others and that they are too important to have to slow down, stop, or otherwise change their course.
Those are probably the same folks who can't be bothered to put their shopping carts into the "corrals" in store parking lots, and prefer to just abandon them in parking spots. Recently I noticed two large lumber carts left in parking spots at a local home supply store lot, when a storage area was about one space away. Who are these people? Why are they in such a hurry? Why do they not care about anyone else's car getting dented or scratched because they abandoned the cart?
Anyone out there remember the concept of a "social contract?" I think the contract is broken.
As a bike rider, I pay close attention to other traffic on the streets, and it's appalling how many people think stop signs are just advisory, and roll on by.
Right turns on red, are another cause of concern for pedestrians, bicyclists, and other vehicles. A ridiculous number of drivers don't recognize that right turns on red are supposed to only be made after stopping not instead of stopping: "drivers must come to a complete stop and yield the right-of-way to oncoming traffic and pedestrians before turning" ). Because so many people don't seem to feel the need to stop before turning, or pull out without yielding to oncoming traffic, I think the right turn on red rules are among the worst rules enacted during my adulthood. I can't remember when the rules were changed to allow turning red at stop lights, but I'm pretty sure it was after I took driver training in high school back in the Pleistocene. I suppose it's too much to expect that people who don't stop at stop lights will stop at stop signs...
Too many people seem to think the rules only apply to others and that they are too important to have to slow down, stop, or otherwise change their course.
Those are probably the same folks who can't be bothered to put their shopping carts into the "corrals" in store parking lots, and prefer to just abandon them in parking spots. Recently I noticed two large lumber carts left in parking spots at a local home supply store lot, when a storage area was about one space away. Who are these people? Why are they in such a hurry? Why do they not care about anyone else's car getting dented or scratched because they abandoned the cart?
Anyone out there remember the concept of a "social contract?" I think the contract is broken.
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