You're walking down the street when you realize that you need to cross. When you look up, you realize that the crosswalk is displaying the 'do not walk' sign, so you stop and wait. Meanwhile, a car approaches and slows down, signaling for you to go ahead and cross the street. Now the question is, what do you do next?
As an avid walker and public-transit enthusiast, I find myself in this predicament at least a few times a week. I always feel this pressure to cross the street faster than I normally would, since the car has kindly stopped and I don't want to hold up any other traffic. It isn't something I really ever thought too deeply about, though... until I stumbled upon this video on the subject from the Community Channel on YouTube.
Nat, the channel's founder and chief comedian, describes the stress she also feels when this happens to her. She describes "the pressure" she feels when a car stops for her to let her cross the street. "I feel like it's the unspoken rule," she says. "If a car stops for you to cross, you can no longer just cross the road at a normal pace."
This social pressure is something we've all felt, right? What is it about this act of kindness in particular that warrants so much action from us, the recipient, when most other nice gestures don't? Nat points out this oddity using the example of getting someone a glass of water. You would never ask someone to appreciate their water more or to drink it faster because you got it for them; in fact, doing so would seem insane! Why is it, then, that when a car stops for you, there's so much pressure to live up to their act of kindness?
I personally think that it's probably because you can't really thank the driver in most cases. Usually, they are going to have their windows rolled up, so having a glass barrier between the two of you makes any verbal communication impossible. As a result, you don't really have the means to express your appreciation by actually saying "thank you," as much as you'd like to do it.
Because of this conundrum, Nat describes actually detesting people who stop their cars to let her get across the street. It has to do with the amount of pressure it puts on her — or perhaps that she puts on herself: "I guess in my head," she says, "I think that if they hadn't stopped the car, I'd be crossing the road and really enjoying the pace that I would normally cross the road at, but now there all of this imaginary stress on my shoulders."
How do you possibly solve this inner-dilemma? While Nat doesn't have an exact answer, she admits that she can overthink things; maybe, then, the solution is just to relax a little bit.
How do you handle crossing the street when a car stops for you? Do you feel an invisible pressure to walk faster when this happens than you normally would? Watch the full video below if you want to get more insight into this #FirstWorldProblem and see Nat's hilarious comedy.
Images: CommunityChannel/YouTube (2)
