A theory on crowds and queues

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That wasn't directed at me, but I learned something about myself this past weekend that I may as well share. My city (Vancouver, Canada) has an annual festival where various countries put on fireworks shows that are synchronized to music. The shows run from 10:00 to 10:30 over a couple of weeks and attract about 300,000 people per night. In prior years I used to park my car about a mile from the waterfront and walk to the beach to watch the show. When the show was over, huge throngs of people would choke the streets, but by the time I got to my car it was usually starting to thin out and I could get going without any problems. This year a friend invited me to watch the fireworks from his high-rise but there's no parking downtown on fireworks nights so I took the subway. When the show was over we watched the crowd for about an hour and then I left to walk to the subway station. When I got there I found the line-up for the subway was still about 10 feet wide and 3 blocks long. I don't know how many people that is, but it's a lot. The subway runs until 1:15 AM and it was sill only 11:45 so I sat on the curb across the street from the station to wait for the line to get shorter because I hate standing in line. I watched as people tried to break into the front of the line and the security guards would pull them back out of the line and point them toward the far end. Eventually the police showed up and started helping with crowd control. I noticed that every time they pulled a cheater out of line I was elated. Not just happy or satisfied, but totally ecstatic. When I saw someone get away with cheating I would feel rage. After one particular guy broke into the line I wanted to run over to him and kick and scream and claw his eyes out, but then I realized it would probably be a fatal mistake since the guy was about 6'6" and 300 pounds and looked like a WWF wrestler. I don't usually let myself get out of control in public, but suddenly my world was a circle about 5 feet wide and I just sat there on the curb and rocked back and forth with my hands over my ears for about an hour. An hour later the lines were still out of sight, so I started walking toward home. I passed two other stations with big lines and started to worry about whether the city would keep running the subways after the last scheduled run if there was still a crowd. By the time I got to the 4th station I was far enough from downtown that there was no lineup.

This whole event got me thinking about crowds and lines and why I react the way I do. I don't have a problem with crowded subway cars, even during rush hour. I don't mind sitting in a movie theatre. Going to the park to sit in a grass field with 10,000 other people to listen to the symphony doesn't bother me. I've even spent time shopping in cities like Paris, Bangkok, Shanghai and Hong Kong without the crowds bothering me. But waiting in line at the bank for 10 minutes kills me. Being 4th or 5th in the take-out line at the coffee shop makes me tense. I'm the kind of guy who goes to the drive-through at McDonalds and honks at the idiot in front of me who pays using a card instead of cash.

I've finally realized that it's not about the crowd at all. It's about self-determination. If the subway is too crowded I can get off. If people are sitting too close at the park I can pick up my blanket and sit somewhere else. Even on a jammed sidewalk in Hong Kong I can walk wherever I want as long as I'm careful and keep my eyes open. But once I'm in the drive-through line I'm stuck. Once I'm in the line at the bank or coffee shop I'm bound by the "wait until it's your turn" rule I learned as a child. And it's that strict adherence to the rules that drove me crazy at the subway station. There are a lot of times when I'd like to be able to jump the queue but psychologically I just can't, probably for the same reason I never walk on the grass when there's a "don't walk on grass" sign, and the same reason I never go into a store through the "out" door even if it's open. Since I can't break the rules and go to the front of the line I get disproportionately angry at others who can and do.

So to answer the original question: the reason I can stand to be around all those people is because for all practical purposes they don't exist in my egocentric little world unless/until they block my view or restrict my mobility. The people behind me don't impact on my self-determination, and I can tolerate the people in front of me as long as we are all living by the same rules.

i do that, Jetson. i live in my own little bubble. mind you, has its disadvantages - it forget i'm in public, and start singing or laughing or muttering about things, or something. i expect i'm just a bag lady at heart...

I do that, too.

People will either think i'm weird or crazy. I get in trouble at work because of my laugh.

I prefer lines over crowds because almost everyone in line ignores the person in front and behind, so I am once again in my own little world. Though someone behind me does make me nervous.

I don't prefer either a crowd or a line. And when in a crowd, I take to the peripheral.

Of course, I don't like lines because I have a hard time waiting anyways. I should be first because the universe revolves around me!

Precisely. This is actually why I have no problems with crowds, but one-on-one conversation can really mess with my head. Thanks to lack of verbal skills, not being able to keep up with the conversation, whatever - it's the loss of self-determination, the failure to exert any kind of control over the situation, that spirals into frustration.

In your subway lines, it's the fact that they know how to manipulate social rules well enough to get away with cheating, and you don't/won't. In a one-on-one overwhelming conversation, it's the misinterpretation of social rules that leaves me with no idea if it's ok to walk away, change the subject, or exert any kind of influence over it.

It's a vicious cycle that I've only been able to find one way out of: risking the actions that would increase self-determination. Breaking the social rules (maybe by action, maybe by speaking out) till you've convinced yourself you're not actually trapped.

I dislike lines and crowds. lines are easier to deal with in some ways, but exasperating in others. Why do people in supermarket queues wait until they are at the till before even thinking about getting ready to pay? Why in crowded ares like bars, concert halls, etc, do people clump in the narrowest pints giving access to the lavatory? And so on. Jetson, next time you do this take a webcam and we can all cheer and boo as the line is controlled.

Same here. At least a line has clearly (well, for the most part) defined rules and I can wander off into la-la land and not really pay attention to what is happening.

Crowds of strangers are fine with me. A crowded hallway at school is no fun, however; people expect to be reconized and aknowledged.