Hey! No Cutting!

What you do says a lot about what you think

I had a bit of angst the other day while driving home from a client. There was a bit of traffic and I watched as yet another car went around the others merging from the entrance ramp to force their way in at the very end of the ramp – some eight cars ahead.

Cutting, budging, pushing in, butting, queue jumping – what ever you want to call it, it’s generally rude and goes back to – giving or taking!

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Taking from everyone else

Let’s suppose for the moment that a large number of people would like to make their way through an area that has a small opening – and a line forms. Some person then comes up and walks to the front, physically pushing their way into the line and through the opening. That is a statement to everyone else that is respectfully waiting, “I am more important than you, and my time waiting in the line is worth more than yours!” As the same number of people get through with or without the line jumping, the jumper adds a bit of time to everyone else’s wait.

(btw – Wikipedia provides an entertaining read about this topic here)

Here, you can cut

Offering a spot in a line is both a give and a take – it is giving something of value to the person allowed in, but a taking from everyone else. In some situations, offering a spot is in recognition of outside circumstances – a medical, child related, or other unique condition that mitigates the situation.

Most of us can accept it (and should actually encourage it) when someone lets the elderly couple in front of them in the line to buy tickets, or when someone gives up their seat on a crowded bus to the soon-to-be mom, or even when the driver stops to let another out of the parking lot and into traffic. But if this “privilege” were abused and wholesale cutting were allowed, the situation can quickly become “unfair”.

Alternatives

Finding a less crowded line, otherwise known as the “Disney strategy”, is in general a good thing. Let me explain… It is generally known that visitors to entertainment parks, like Disney World, will start at the attractions closest to where they entered. More people equals longer lines and less riding. A successful strategy (the Disney Strategy) is to take a longer walk when you first enter to the less-crowded attractions in the back of the park and return to the front later in the day when everyone else has left that area.

Sometimes several lines leading to the same goal exist. In these instances, it is important to get out of the most crowded queue and into an alternative line. Unfortunately, knowledge of these alternatives may be slow in coming. Organizations often set out criers who have no purpose other than to tell the mass of people waiting that there are multiple lines in multiple locations;-) I have enjoyed numerous parties where the food stations by the entrance were crowded while the ones in the back were ignored. I prefer to scout out the options and browse at the less-crowded stations. Should someone else attempt to unsuccessfully find an alternative, I am likely to allow them to cut in with me, as that fits my definition of a reasonable justification.

Civility

Waiting in a line – that’s a human thing. A pack of animals defers to the strongest while the weakest gets the scraps left behind – but we’re better than that…

We believe in a sense of fairness. It’s better to wait in comfort – without the jostling, elbowing, or jockeying for position.

Cutting ahead doesn’t get more people through, it just makes a statement about one’s values…