This is my very first post. It is a trial and not earth shaking and a little silly. Stick in there with me for improvement. The blog design will improve as I keep moving ahead as well.
I arrived in New York City as a refugee from the West Coast recently. On the West Coast everybody drives. To see someone walking is an oddity. Not so in New York City. It is a mind-boggling experience to navigate successfully as a pedestrian in NYC and to see how smoothly the masses of people move along the sidewalks. It is culture shock.
I am reminded of seeing the flocks of swallows return to Capistrano. They fly around in what appears to be chaos that will surely result in catastrophic collisions. Collisions do not happen. Swallows have some kind built in radar or sonar which keeps them flying in formation without colliding.
The sidewalks in NYC, Manhattan to be specific can be the same way. New Yorkers must have the same kind of radar. Is it genetic or can you acquire it through the learning process? I felt clumsy and awkward. I was constantly dodging and weaving to avoid oncoming pedestrians. I surprised others with my quick movements and was disturbing the system. I was overwhelmed by the experience of walking anywhere.
It took some study of the crowd dynamics but one day I had a "ah ha" experience. One needs to plan ahead.
It's similar to driving 75 miles per hour on a freeway in Los Angeles or Seattle. You can't just watch the car directly in front of you but instead must be watching those a half mile ahead since things happen so fast.
Applying this theory to sidewalk travel in Manhattan has made such a difference and maybe I'm learning the radar system. I watch 15 to 30 feet in front of me to identify the creases in the crowd and enter those as they present themselves.
What remains mindboggling to me are those pedestrians who walk the sidewalks while texting, never bothering to look up from their BlackBerry. I haven't yet seen one involved in a collision. It is truly a mind-boggling, techno-cultural phenomenon.
Great post! And don't worry. NYC pedestrian radar CAN be learned. Advanced practitioners can employ it without looking up from their iPhones. As a long-time New Yorker, I have almost forgotten how intimidating it was to learn to navigate the sidewalks. These days, I travel to other cities for work and wonder why nobody is walking. : )
ReplyDelete