Do I look lazy?
I think must, because every day when I walk around the streets of India, every available auto-rickshaw pulls up in front of me to ask if I want a ride. Never mind that I have just told another rickshaw “no thanks” literally two seconds previously.
Now, rickshaws follow the common taxi pattern of always being plentiful when you don’t need one, and never around when you do need one, but that’s a topic for another post.
The other day I started thinking about how much time I’ve wasted due to rickshaws. Every time I try to cross the street, two or three rickshaws pull up DIRECTLY in front of me to ask if I need a ride. By pulling directly in front of me I have to step around them to keep crossing the street (wasting time) and the delay also frequently causes me to miss the gaps in traffic as a result (wasting more time).
What’s this all mean? Well, each incident only wastes a few seconds, but what if you add them all up? Then multiply by the number of people that are similarly interrupted each day while trying to cross the street, the numbers get huge!
Cumulative time wasting by large groups of people is strange to think about.
Another example that I’ve been considering is time wasted by planes. Because the aisles on most planes only accommodate single-file traffic, each time a passenger takes a few seconds to grab a bag, pick up a book, or look around their seat before disembarking, they are not only delaying themselves for those seconds, but also everyone behind them on the plane. And what about when air carriers keep passengers on planes on runways waiting to take-off or disembark? Even if the plane is held up for just ten minutes, because there hundreds of people on the plane, each minute of delay wastes HOURS of time. And what about the times that the plane is delayed for hours?
This problem extends to other countries with auto-rickshaws. Dearly known as a “bajaji” in Tanzania, with reverence to the great Bajaji manufacturer, these devil machines will constantly demand that foreigners enter their 3-wheeled rickety motor vehicle. However, upon entrance, the ride can be so pleasantly relaxing — well, assuming you don’t get bumped by another car because you’d go flying. Actually, potholes are pretty dangerous too.
Perhaps it would save time to get into the rickshaw and pay the paltry fee for the veicle to make a fast u turn and get you across the street.
as to group delays need we omit traffic slowdown?
Everyone needs to find a worthwhile way to contemplate life during those trying times so as to make them personally rewarding.