Here’s a story about how I almost got run over by a car at the Renaissance Faire. Strange how it doesn’t make a difference, but I did it anyway.
I almost had a guy run me over at the Renaissance Faire yesterday. I certainly put myself into harms way, so if anything had happened it would have been of my own doing.
Anyway, there's this blue pickup truck in the parking lot in one of the aisles leading toward the exit road. Between our car and this truck is a white Saturn with New Jersey plates. The truck is at the front of the aisle waiting to be able to pull out onto the exit road to the right. Traffic is also coming from an aisle on the other side of the exit road.
The truck is just sitting there. I think maybe he let the car from across the road get in front of him on the exit road, but subsequent cars did that thing where they latch themselves to the bumper of the car in front of them and didn't let the truck pull in. The end result is that about three cars got by in front of this truck from the other side. Totally not the truck driver's fault.
To our left is the edge of the parking lot, and a small patch of empty parking area. At this point, the guy in the Saturn pulls his car through this grassy area, around the truck to the other side of the exit road, and behind the last of the cars that won't let the truck exit. It was quite obvious that he was upset about the guy in the truck "letting everyone in", so he's just going to be rude and do the same thing. I pulled up to the truck, and since traffic wasn't moving at all, I just got out of the car and walked up and stood in front of this guy in the Saturn, waving the truck onto the exit road.
The Saturn driver was a bit distressed. He said something like, "Get out of the way!" Then I think he realized what I was doing and said, "He let everyone else out and wasn't moving!" So I shrugged. At that moment, I could not verbalize my thoughts without sparing the ears of the children in his back seat, so I didn't say anything.
When the truck finally did pull forward a bit, the guy in the Saturn did too, and bumped right into my calves, but I didn't move. I just sort of looked at him and said, "Don't push me." To which he replied, "Don't push me!" Funny.
Dan and Dave got out of their cars from behind us to come over and see "what's the problem here", but the truck got through and I went back to my car before the angry Saturn guy really blew a gasket.
And on my way out of the lot, I let at least 4 other cars pull out in front of me.
So what's the moral of all of this? I don't know. But I do have an answer to my ecological Nash Equilibrium dilemma. People just will do what's right, because they'll get tired of all of the wrong.
