Quote:
Originally Posted by BetterRed
Quite the reverse here, most old people wait with their (gold Opal) card in their hands or on a lariat around their necks, maybe because it's also customary for younger people to stand aside to allow older people to get on the bus first. Our buses rarely arrive early (if they get ahead of schedule they stop for a while), but they are often 5-10 minutes late.
It's the millennials who fiddle with their phones whilst waiting who cause the delays. When the bus arrives they suddenly realise their (black Opal) card is in their backpack; so that must be shrugged off their backs, and various compartments unzipped and searched, then when they finally find it, they discover they forgot to top it up. So they have to buy a ticket from the driver.
More searching, for money this time, all they can find are a collection 5 and 10 cent coins tucked into corners of various pockets and gussets. Meantime some silly old bastard like me calls out, "Whaddya doing, making a takeover offer for the goddamn bus company.".
BR
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Then there's that, granted.
Sometimes, I feel as if the only "normal" people (edit: as in, present in the here and now, with conscious thought) are the ones between 30 and 70 or so (or maybe even between 35 and 65), at least around here.
The ones under 30 are completely oblivious to everything due to their eyes being riveted to a phone and/or earbuds being lodged in their ears, and the ones over 70 can't think properly anymore.
The former:
I can't even count the times I've been almost been hit by a bicycle careening around a corner, driven by some 15-25 y/o... which shouldn't be, because if my traffic light is GREEN, the bicycle's light is RED.
This is getting so bad, BEN (mobile network provider) and KNGF (Koninklijke Nederlandse Geleidenhondenfonds / Dutch Royal Guide Dog Foundation) have started a campain:
Rest assured: it's not only pedestrians that use mobile phones and/or earbuds in traffic...
The latter:
Yesterday I walked home, in the dark, turned a corner, and almost crashed face down in the earth due to getting entangled in a dog leash. There are many old people around here. They all have chihuahua-sized lap dogs. And they ALL use a roll out leash ("Flexi") that is between 10-15 feet in length. And, invariably, the ALL use the maximum line extension, stretching the line across paths, pavements, walkways, and in town, even across narrow streets.
If you have a chihuahua-sized dog, in the dark, it's not guaranteed that others will see it. It's not even guaranteed they see YOU, let alone the line stretching between dog and owner.