Don't Push People or Touch Their Cars

I know I recently wrote a blog about sidewalk congestion, so I hate to get stuck on a point, but today I pushed a tourist in the morning and I almost got beat up at noon causing me to step back and take a look at my own "road rage".

Most of the revolving doors in New York City that are in hotels are automated so that they revolve on a motion detector.  When you step in they start to move.  But the majority of revolving door in all of the other thousands of buildings in New York City (and the world) revolve the old fashioned way by you actually having to push the door. Every day I see tourist walking into these doorways and minimally pushing the door forward.  If you watch them they get about as far as halfway through and stop so that they are caged in the doorway standing frozen waiting for the door to revolve.  I work across the plaza from the Today Show, so my day begins with cheering fans making their way from the subway and area hotels towards the shows audience pen.  I understand that they don't know the area and are confused by the Rockefeller Center complex with eight very similar looking buildings, but when they emerge from the subway and need to proceed from the building onto the city sidewalk watching their confusion as they try to pass through a revolving door is almost mind boggling.  Today I was in a rush.  I saw three woman (all wearing matching bright orange t-shirts) heading towards the same revolving door that I needed to use.  The first woman pushed the door slowly and proceeded, the second woman got through on the momentum from the first woman, but the third woman was trapped in the door.  I honestly did not realize that she had stopped mid turn until I gave the door a good push and she went flying forward as the door hit her in the back.  She was not hurt, but she was startled.  She went stumbling out and she and her friends burst into laughter.  At least they had a sense of humor about her not knowing how to work a revolving door and the fact that it was my push that sent her flying.

You CANNOT speed through a crosswalk!

The second incident was my fault.  And if I had seen Jeff do what I did I would have given him an earful.  At lunch time I was 49th and Avenue of the Americas (6th Avenue).  The walk sign lit up white and the throngs began to walk through the crosswalk.  A dark blue SUV turned the corner from coming uptown on Avenue of the Americas onto 49th Street.  Anyone knows that a car turning onto a cross street at that time of day may have to wait until their green light is almost red again before there is a break in pedestrian traffic to make the turn.  This woman barreled through and almost ran over some people.  I was literally face to face with her when she plowed into the crowd.  I knocked on her car window and yelled something at her (I honestly don't remember what because I was so startled by her driving).  She glanced at me and proceeded forward.  She had barely proceeded a quarter of the way down the block before she stopped her vehicle practically in the middle of the road and got out.  I was walking down the sidewalk by this time, but I had glanced back.  Then I saw her standing on the corner scouring the crowds in my direction. I realized that she was looking for the crazy woman that had deigned to knock on her car window.  I know better than to touch a person or their car in New York City.  In a town where we rub shoulders daily on the subways, in elevators, and in shops the unwritten rule is that you never purposely touch a person or their belongings with your hands. I had just reacted spontaneously and now a nut was out of her car looking to hunt me down to seek revenge for me knocking on her car window.

I ducked into a bank for safety.  I've seen one too many iPhone videos on the news where the crowd watches someone being beat up and no one intervenes, and I had no interest in being a You Tube sensation.  I figured if I was in bank the security officer would be obliged to break up the attack and their would be security cameras to capture the woman's image for her arrest. After a few minutes I lost track of the woman in the crowd, but her car stayed in the street for about three minutes from the time she stopped in her madness.  I was safe, but shaken.

Lessens learned.  Unless I want to knock a tourist off of her Sketchers I need to push revolving doors with care, and NEVER touch anyone's car. I tell myself that I can handle the masses and the every day pressures of living on an island with 8,000,000 people, but I must admit there are days when it gets to me.