What Does it Mean?

There is a T-intersection near the back of my property line, where recently the city, in its infinite wisdom, put a controlled crosswalk. You know, one of those where the pedestrians push a button and a set of flashing yellow lights come on, supposedly stopping traffic. People have been crossing here safely, although not in large numbers, for the 20 years I have lived in this house. Never been a pedestrian so much as nicked, so far as I know, and I would know.

Whatever. The other day I left my house and headed downtown, a walk which involves my crossing that same street. I walked to the curb, perhaps 30 yards south of the new crosswalk, saw no cars coming from either direction (one can see a looong way in both directions on that street) and so walked across. Just as I stepped off the curb, a young fellow (in his 20s, I would say) stepped up to the new crosswalk, pushed the button, and waited for the yellow lights to flash before crossing the street. I could not stop myself, I said ‘oh my god’ out loud.

This caused me to remember something I saw happen on my old employer’s campus all the time. By now every building has one or more doors to the outside that can be opened by an electro-hydraulic system. You just push a button on either side of the door, and wait, and the door slowly swings open. This allows, for example, people in wheel chairs to go through the door unaided. It is common to see a student or group of students, all 20-something and perfectly healthy, walk up to such a door, push the button, and stand there and wait for the door to sloooowly open before walking through.

I have on several occasions walked by those students, yanked the door open using, you know, my rather old arm, and walked past them. No indication it phases them in the least.

Letting the hydraulics open the door of course leaves said door open for a loooong time, so as to give a person in a wheelchair time to get through it before the mechanism sloooowly closes it. This allows plenty of cooled air to leave the building in the summer and a long gust of cold air to enter the building in the winter. Lovely.

I don’t know what to think of this behavior – I have more questions than answers.

One, is this a youth thing or perhaps a Canadian thing? I have long noticed that Canadians are more likely than Americans to stand on a street corner devoid of any traffic and wait for the pedestrian signal to say ‘Walk’ before crossing. Are American university students also likely to let the electrical system open doors for them, or less so? Are older people – like me – less likely to behave in these ways?

Is this an indication that we have raised a generation of sheep who can do nothing without official permission, or who are too lazy to use their limbs?

I dunno, but I find it…..depressing.

Any thoughts welcome.