Rant: The Struggles of a Fast Walker

When I travel from place to place at school, I like to walk at quite a rapid pace. Not so fast that I start a light jog, but fast enough to where I almost glide along the floor. The reasons why I walk this fast is because I am usually late for class or have limited time to get from one class to another. Normally I get to my destination with ease, but there are other times where I encounter obstacles along the way. The one obstacle of getting to class that I absolutely cannot stand is individuals who walk very slowly. I understand that they may be walking slowly because they are not pressed for time or are just naturally slow walkers, but it is quite inconsiderate of them to waste other people’s time when they have places to go and people to see. There are many different styles of slow walking that I have encountered and they all frustrate me.

The worst one is when an individual is on their phone or daydreaming in front of you in a busy hallway. You try to go around them but the sheer volume in the hallway limits your ability to do so. Then once you find an opening and start to make your move, the slow walker moves right in front of you, inhibiting you from going any further. After another couple unsuccessful attempts, you are forced to give up and remain stuck behind them for the remainder of the journey to your destination.

Another slow walker style I like to call the ‘span’. This formation usually includes 3 to 5 individuals who are all friends with each other and are trying to maintain a conversation while walking down the hallway. To do this, they create a horizontal line across the span of the hallway, creating a barrier where no one is able to pass. With no way to get around this blockade, groups of people tend to get stuck behind them and are unable to move until the group disperses or the hallway becomes even wider. Then it becomes a mad rush to get to your class as fast as possible.

Yesterday, I came across another type of slow walker. This person was proceeding at a snail’s pace and I was quickly catching up to them. I was working on passing them when all of a sudden they came to a complete stop in the middle of the hallway and turned around to go back in their previous direction. This abrupt movement caught me off guard and I was forced to awkwardly jump out of the way to avoid running into them.

Slow walkers do not have any awareness of what is around them. They only worry about themselves and don’t consider the fact that other people have much more important things to do than waste their time stuck behind a slow walker. Therefore, I think that slow walkers should have their own section of the hallway to walk in (like a slow lane for cars) or they should just be more considerate of others and move out of the way if they see a fast walker stuck behind them.