• potoo22@programming.dev
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    4 days ago

    Tip from person with short legs: if someone is walking faster behind you, move to the side and slow down to let them pass at their speed. You’re welcome fast walkers.

  • RedSnt 👓♂️🖥️@feddit.dk
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    4 days ago

    In German, when two or more trucks overtake with very slight speed differences like this, they call it “Elefantenrennen” or “elephant racing”. Bit of a disrespect to elephants if you ask me, snails would’ve been more appropriate.

    • thedirtyknapkin@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      haha, we have the exact same phrase in the states. not even just similar, it’s literally called an elephant race here too.

      makes me wonder what country started it. or maybe they just look so much like elephants racing that multiple languages have like convergent linguistics.

      like carcinification but for the phrase “elephant race”

      • RedSnt 👓♂️🖥️@feddit.dk
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        2 days ago

        When I looked up the article on wikipedia I found it in my language as well (Danish) but I’ve never really heard it said out loud. To be fair, I don’t drive at all, so that’s probably a big reason as to why.

  • merc@sh.itjust.works
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    4 days ago

    Yesterday I was stuck behind a very fast walking woman… who was walking her dog. She’d slow down to nothing when the dog needed to sniff something, then speed way up when the dog was done. Her v(max) was higher than mine, but her v(min) was zero, leading to a v(mean) that was slightly slower than mine. So, I’d keep on catching up to her and having to wait until her dog was done sniffing at something. But her dog didn’t take enough time to justify my walking around her.

    • zerofk@lemmy.zip
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      3 days ago

      As you get closer, drop a bone so the dog is occupied for a long time.

      What do you mean you don’t carry bones around?

    • MBM@lemmings.world
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      3 days ago

      It’s the worst. I had the same thing happen where I’d almost overtake a guy but he’d suddenly start walking again, multiple times

  • Not as annoying when you’re a fast walker, but they guy behind you is only 90% as fast, but decides to take your walking as a challenge and just follows you across campus for no apparent reason and you’re just wondering why someone is clearly following you.

  • infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net
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    4 days ago

    Not as bad as when a small woman crosses the road to end up walking right in front of me and then proceeds to be visibly uncomfortable at the fact that a large man is walking right behind her.

    Even better, when I cross the road too as courtesy so that I’m not behind her, and she simultaneously crosses back across the road because she was uncomfortable, then notices I’m behind her again and thinks I’m following her.

    I moved from a huge city to a smaller city, and sometimes I miss the huge city because nobody really gave a fuck who was near them on the sidewalk because there were always other people on the sidewalk. People perceive others so much harder here and while the social discomfort it causes me isn’t nearly as bad as the fear of assault that small woman might have, it still gets exhausting.

    • Agent641@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      You just need to reassure them that your intentions are pure. Whisper “I ain’t gonna kill you.” When you get nice and close

    • howrar@lemmy.ca
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      3 days ago

      If you’re close enough to be in each other’s personal space, then the sidewalk is narrow and you’ll be blocking traffic going in the other direction if you try to overtake.

  • lost_faith@lemmy.ca
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    4 days ago

    Worse, the slow walker that takes up the whole sidewalk (weaving back and forth) while wearing earbuds and then act upset they didn’t hear “Excuse me” 3x when you push past them

  • Agent641@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Just speed up until you are level.woth them, match your speed, and hold their hand. Worst case scenario, you don’t have to worry about them anymore. Best case, new best friend!

  • Redfugee@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    I was in this situation once, I went for the pass, it was taking too long to pass and I noticed they were also speeding up, so I pick up the pace and start the jog and they did the same we started to get into a full sprint. It went on for a while until we got to the corner, he went left and I waited for the light. Never saw him again. To this day I’m not quite sure what happened.

    • CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social
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      4 days ago

      It somehow feels physically exhausting to intentionally slow down below my normal walking speed, because then I notice what my feet are doing instead of it being automatic.

      • azertyfun@sh.itjust.works
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        4 days ago

        I can’t be fucked to find the graph but it’s true. The relationship between speed and exhaustion is highly asymmetric, going 20 % slower than your default walk is much more tiring than going 20 % faster.

        It actually makes intuitive sense to anyone who hikes. Walking slow is like hiking downhill. You’re fighting your body’s natural cadence which requires extra energy that doesn’t go anywhere useful. Going faster also uses extra energy but it’s largely “useful” energy that spares steps. The extreme version of that line of thought is that I can run 10 km but not crawl 10 km.

        Also fast walkers tend to… walk a lot, it’s a virtuous circle. It’s fine if grandma does a lap around the mall at 2 km/h, but I’ve been walking all day and I have more places to walk to afterwards and I ain’t doing all that at crawling pace.

    • jaybone@lemmy.zip
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      4 days ago

      Or follow. But don’t follow too closely! But don’t get too far away! Oh suddenly he jumped into a fucking speedboat. He got away. Restart?