Why are Dubliners always in a hurry?

[Jackass]

It's just big city folk.

Who wants to spend their whole life waiting around? You wait for buses, you wait for trains, you wait for trams, you wait in traffic,you wait for lights, you wait in line, you wait to be served, you wait to pay, half you life, you're just waiting, everywhere is busy, so if you can make it across the street a little bit quicker, why not? If you add up all the time you spend waiting for things, when it comes to a 50/50 shot between me and a scooter in rush hour traffic, I'll take my chances.

ScottSF

[Jackass] wrote: »

...
Who wants to spend their whole life waiting around? You wait for buses, you wait for trains, you wait for trams, you wait in traffic,you wait for lights, you wait in line, you wait to be served, you wait to pay, half you life, you're just waiting, everywhere is busy, so if you can make it across the street a little bit quicker, why not? If you add up all the time you spend waiting for things, when it comes to a 50/50 shot between me and a scooter in rush hour traffic, I'll take my chances.

Ahhhh... you've just proposed the first logical theory to explain this. So perhaps because people here are constantly waiting and can't do anything about it, they are taking out this pent-up frustration on the streets of Dublin. Works for me!

DonQuigleone

For what it's worth, I've never heard of any accidents taking place that were caused by our jaywalking habits.

returnNull

Captain Chaos wrote: »

Even my moping around go nowhere in a hurry lazy walk is faster than most.

I can make my 10 year old son jog at my fasted pace lol

WindSock

Captain Chaos wrote: »

That and the average person walks sooo slow in this country it's unreal. Even my moping around go nowhere in a hurry lazy walk is faster than most.

Yet we have been ranked as being one of the worlds fastest walkers:


http://www.planetizen.com/node/24247

Researchers have conducted observations in 32 world cities to determine where people walk the fastest. They've found that the world's fastest walkers are in Singapore. To the surprise of many, New York City's walkers are only the eighth-fastest.
"Teams with stop watches timed how long it took 35 men and women to walk along a 60ft stretch of pavement."

"Comparing the results with those compiled by US psychologist Professor Robert Levine in the 1990s, the study showed that people were, on average, now walking 10 per cent faster. Men are generally 25 per cent quicker on their feet than women."

"People were in the greatest hurry in Singapore. Following in their footsteps were the residents of Copenhagen and Madrid, the two fastest-paced European cities."

The Top Ten cities with the fastest walkers:

1) Singapore (Singapore); 10.55 seconds

2) Copenhagen (Denmark); 10.82 seconds

3) Madrid (Spain); 10.89 seconds

4) Guangzhou (China): 10.94 seconds

5) Dublin (Ireland); 11.03 seconds

6) Curitiba (Brazil); 11.13 seconds

7) Berlin (Germany); 11.16 seconds

8) New York (US); 12.00 seconds

9) Utrecht (Netherlands); 12.04 seconds

10) Vienna (Austria); 12.06 seconds

strandroad

DonQuigleone wrote: »

For what it's worth, I've never heard of any accidents taking place that were caused by our jaywalking habits.

There were certainly some deaths of pedestrians, hard to know if jaywalking was a factor though...

RATM

errlloyd wrote: »

The lights take so long that I cross the street whenever I have a chance to avoid the potential of waiting.

This is basically the essense of it- the pedestrian light cycles can take about 3 minutes, during which time there will usually be at least one opportunity to cross.

I think another factor that comes into it is that if a car knocks over a pedestrian in Ireland then they are almost always in the wrong whereas the same is not true in other countries, such as Australia for example, where pedestrians have to be a lot more wary of cars than vice versa.

Other factors are the rain- who the hell is going to stand for 3 minutes in the rain waiting on a green man ?

I really wish Ireland would take another look at zebra crossings like we used to have in the 1980's and which are still plastered all over the UK. They make so much more sense for both motorists and pedestrians- it only takes 10 seconds to cross a road with a 10 second delay for the motorist and virtually no delay for the pedestrian is far more preferable to our current system. Obviously pedestrian lights are needed on busy junctions but they seem to be just used everywhere these days, many a time when driving and stopped at pedestrian lights the pedestrian has already crossed the road and the motorist is still left sitting waiting for another minute for the lights to change to green, it is just daft design and planning by the engineers in the council.

Archeron

ScottSF wrote: »

...Even more scary to watch is someone pushing a pram (with a baby inside of course) out into the street with oncoming traffic only a few seconds away or a bus that is about to come barreling (is that the right word?) around the corner.

There was once a time when it was 50/50 that those prams contained toblerones or bananas.

ScottSF

Archeron wrote: »

There was once a time when it was 50/50 that those prams contained toblerones or bananas.

I've seem women selling strawberries from prams a couple of times but toblerones (and bananas)?!? I know this is off topic, but please tell me more...

ScottSF

3) Madrid (Spain); 10.89 seconds

Thanks for posting the pedestrian walking speed stats - very interesting but I find it very hard to believe based on #3. I've been to Madrid 3 times and I always felt they were the SLOWEST walkers in Europe. Especially in the evening when they are out for a stroll (I forget what it is called in Spanish).

I do believe walkers in Dublin are quite fast on average, but not as fast as NYC. When walking about I often pass pedestrians on the footpaths and I've noticed that quite often they are tourists and not locals (at least judging by the maps or speaking another language to each other).

Archeron

ScottSF wrote: »

I've seem women selling strawberries from prams a couple of times but toblerones (and bananas)?!? I know this is off topic, but please tell me more...

Haha, not quite off topic, because the women with those prams used to walk exceptionally quick up Henry street when the police arrived looking for trading licenses. I don't know why toblerones were so popular among the traders, but they always stick in my mind along with the bananas. I show my age now when I remember they used to sell five chocolate bars for a pound too.

ScottSF

Archeron wrote: »

Haha, not quite off topic, because the women with those prams used to walk exceptionally quick up Henry street when the police arrived looking for trading licenses. I don't know why toblerones were so popular among the traders, but they always stick in my mind along with the bananas. I show my age now when I remember they used to sell five chocolate bars for a pound too.

Ahhhhh... now I understand why the merchandise was sitting in a pram. LOL! Thanks for telling us new Dubliners.

FreudianSlippers

Mr Whirly wrote: »

We're trying to make up the time we've lost getting stuck behind blow ins.

Spanish tourists have a standard objective: fan out and slow down. Do not let anyone past!

FreudianSlippers

ScottSF wrote: »

I've seem women selling strawberries from prams a couple of times but toblerones (and bananas)?!? I know this is off topic, but please tell me more...

I take it you haven't experienced the run-up to Christmas in Dublin then.

50 SHEETS OF WRAPPING PAPER: 2 EURO

ALL DEEZ TOBLERONE: 2 EURO.