Pittsburgh Friendliness: Hoax! (transplants, living in, restaurant)

[brimcmike]

Well, actually, no. I interact with Pittsburghers when I get poorer-than-average, apathetic customer service at retail and eating establishments, but that is another post.

Otherwise, I live the mesopotamia of Pittsburgh-proper. I work among largely transplanted professionals.

[PB&J O'Rourke]

Originally Posted by brimcmike

Well, actually, no. I interact with Pittsburghers when I get poorer-than-average, apathetic customer service at retail and eating establishments, but that is another post.

To paraphrase an old saying, "If you meet a jerk at 9am, you met a jerk. If you meet jerks all day, you are the jerk."

[foo cities]

Originally Posted by brimcmike

So, from the top, I am not trolling.

Pittsburghers like to pat themselves on the back for their friendliness. They are not friendly.

Maybe face-to-face, Pittsburghers could be considered innocuous, and perhaps not openly confrontational.
They are not welcoming. They are not out-going. They are not readily helpful. They have no intention of making friends with newcomers. So, friendliness is a hoax.

Underneath this deceptively placid veneer simmers a dangerous, kick-the-dog sort of rage.

Put them behind the wheel of a car, and Pittsburghers become unforeseeably and actively hostile to pedestrians. Pedestrians, in a crosswalk, who have a "Walk" signal. Pedestrians crossing residential streets with or without "Stop" signs.

Drivers making turns will literally cut off a pedestrian obviously about to, and even worse already crossing the street, making them stop in their tracks to avoid getting hit or walking into the moving car running the crosswalk. They also unnecessarily cut their left turns and unnecessarily widen their right turns coming too close to pedestrians.

It is particularly bad with drivers coming from the same direction as you, because they are coming from behind you, and they still do it, essentially surprising you as they careen right in front of you.

If they don't actually try to hit you and stop for you while you're in a crosswalk, they incessantly roll up on and at you, so that they let you know what a complete annoyance you are, and then gun past you.

These drivers act like they don't ever walk on 2 legs themselves, and resent those who do. This is a FAIL, as a human being, on the Golden Rule level.

I have lived for longer than a year in Southern California, Okinawa, Japan, Detroit and Boston. I've stayed for more than a 3 weeks in Manhattan and San Antonio, TX, and visited countless other places for shorter periods. Everywhere else it is the drivers' responsibility not to endanger pedestrians, and to yield to them when they actually have the right-of-way. Sure, everywhere has their outlying bad behavior. Here it is the norm. This is the first place that I have experienced such behavior. It essentially boils down to cars will physically win in a collision with a pedestrian, so they can do whatever they want. So, might makes right. How charmingly feudal.

Compared to other places, Pittsburgh has little absolute traffic congestion, aside from bridges and tunnels (Pittsburghers drive unreasonably slowly in tunnels bringing this problem onto themselves). Maybe in a small, provincial way there can be some relative traffic congestion, but nothing like in the outside world - a plus for comuters and their quality of life. Pedestrians hardly ever jaywalk in ways that impede the travel of cars. The "Pittsburgh Left" combined with not entering intersections to make, and allow those behind to make a left turn when the light changes are completely self-inflicted wounds, and seem to contribute to this problem of pedestrians paying a subjective frustration-price because pedestrians are the weaker actor in a this situation.

So, there are really no, even childish, excuses for this cowardly road rage.

Sometimes I jaywalk because some intersections are dangerous/slow to cross because of the above-mentioned behavior. I jaywalk when there is a break in the traffic and I know that I will be across before the traffic gets to me, I often hear the oncoming drivers gunning their engines speeding up as they head for me.

This behavior is leaving a very sour taste in my mouth for what must be a very unsavory underlying psychology and culture. I and many other people here at least temporarily to learn and train don't have to stay in Pittsburgh. We can take our brains, manners and income somewhere else.

You're right about that. They are like East Coast people.

[Craziaskowboi]

Originally Posted by foo cities

You're right about that. They are like East Coast people.

Well ****, I guess Pittsburgh isn't Midwestern after all!

Originally Posted by sskink

Not friendly? I always smile when I'm about ready to run down a pedestrian.

Same here, especially if they walk in the middle of the street.

[PB&J O'Rourke]

I hate people walking in the street, especially busy streets with sidewalks. USE THE SIDEWALK.

[brimcmike]

Actually, no.

In Boston, pedestrians rule the road and always have the right-of-way. They walk down the street, in the street, even when there are sidewalks. Especially downtown, they step out in front of oncoming traffic, cars stop and no one honks.

In Manhattan, when pedestrians have the signal they have and get the right-of-way, cars stop and let them pass. Alternatively, pedestrians crossing against a light and impeding traffic are in jeopardy of honking, rolling up at, and even being hit because the cars go (and pretty fast), when they have the signal.

[LIRefugee]

Originally Posted by brimcmike

Well, actually, no. I interact with Pittsburghers when I get poorer-than-average, apathetic customer service at retail and eating establishments, but that is another post.

Are you attempting to assert that:

1. Only Pittsburghers drive discourteously and
2. The only customer service and retail employees that are ever rude or apathetic to customers are found in Pittsburgh?

Methinks you're just looking for reasons to dislike the place, and your attempt to psychoanalyze Pittsburghers as a whole based upon your individual experiences as a pedestrian is laughable. My experiences here are indistinguishable from everywhere else (and I have spent more time in more places than you), except possibly Boston, where the pedestrians are more aggressive.

[gbpriv]

Originally Posted by brimcmike

Actually, no.

In Boston, pedestrians rule the road and always have the right-of-way. They walk down the street, in the street, even when there are sidewalks. Especially downtown, they step out in front of oncoming traffic, cars stop and no one honks.

They walk in the street when there's a sidewalk? They step out in front of oncoming traffic without a crosswalk or walk signal? My car would be covered with people!

[CJCsMom]

I grew up in California. My husband was in the military for 20 years, so I have lived all over this great nation and I have to say that of all the places I have lived, Pittsburgh is by far the friendliest and their drivers are the most curteous. In California, you can go years without even knowing your next door neighbor's name. In the south, they are polite...they will polite you to death...but you are never quite accepted as one of the gang. Even the midwest didn't seem as friendly as I have found Pittsburgh to be.

I haven't lived anywhere else where someone will let you turn left in front of them when traffic is crazy. I haven't lived anywhere else where people are quick to wave you into a lane when you are trying to turn out of a parking lot. I live on a very busy street, where the only sidewalk is on the opposite side of the street from my house. I walk my daughter to and from the bus stop each day and every single day as I stand on my driveway waiting for traffic to clear enough to cross the street, someone will see us, stop, and motion us to cross.

[brimcmike]

Pittsburghers would go completely to pieces if they had real traffic congestion like L.A., or suicidal pedestrians like Boston.

So, Pittsburghers are apparently insular and provincial, because they know nothing else than what happens here, repeat unflattering second-hand narratives of other places, and don't know how good they actually have it.

My point is that there ought to be a ready reserve of decency in a place like this.