To think queuing etiquette is just going to pot!

[SignYourName]

I'm British and there's nothing I like more than a good queue (except perhaps a nice cup of tea and a sit down) but it seems to me that the skill of forming a proper queue is going to the dogs.

Every morning at my regular bus stop I have to contend with people who were there before me standing at the wrong end of the shelter and leaving a big space at the bus end, so if I want to be protected from the mild drizzle I have to "push in" ahead of them, or people wandering about and not standing still. I mean, the odd shifting from foot to foot while sighing and looking at one's watch is one thing (I'm not a monster) but really people, make an effort.

WIBU to sneak along one night and mark out neat little numbered squares so there can be no confusion or ambiguity?

[TrendStopper]

YWNBU I hate people who can't queue properly.

It is pretty simple. The first person stands at the front and everyone else stands behind one by one.

[PeppermintInfusion]

At my bus stop people also refuse to queue, but when the bus comes they make a big show of trying to work out who was in order even though there is definitely room for everyone on board I really wish they would just form an orderly queue!

[londonrach]

Tbh at bus stop queuing doesn't usually work as men always let me on first ( they so lovely, I love the politeness if buses) and I always let those who are less able to stand on first so usually everybody stands at the bus door being polite to each other. . Also at our bus stop we have four buses stop so you could be queuing behind someone who not getting on the bus. This bus thing is new to me. At supermarkets etc queuing yes and everyone does....

[SignYourName]

I wouldn't have that problem londonrach as it's one bus, one stop where I get on for work, so there is really no excuse.

[TheSarcasticFringehead]

Tbh, we crowd around the bus and then let people on depending whether we think they got there first or if we're being polite. It could be someone who just came, or not. Rush hour is a different kettle of fish, of course. Then, it's everyone for themselves.

[Hoppinggreen]

My DH is German, I have finally got him trained in the art of queuing!!

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

I love how British queuing for the bus makes me feel. I live in tourist central, and you can feel the wave of outrage that ripples down the bus queue every time someone carrying a big camera wanders up, looks at us all standing in a line and decides to stand at the front.

It is written that next, one of us must cough and look pointed. Then someone else must do the awkward shuffling forward thing. And thirtly the person at the front must tap them on the shoulder and speak the time-honoured words 'ah, sorry, but there is a queue!'

Then we're all very smiley and forgiving as the poor American/Japanese person/Estonian gets confused and shuffled off to the back of the line wondering why on earth we're all so bothered.

It is all very satisfying.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Did I say satisfying? Ok, it's very sad. Very, very sad.

[MaidOfStars]

I posted something about queuing a couple of weeks ago, but didn't get much response. I will therefore, rather cheekily, repeat my questions here:
Is anyone here the product of country or culture which doesn't traditionally queue at bus stops/bars/etc? When in the UK, do you queue in such situations? What do you think when you look at all the "stiff upper lippers" queuing? Do you even notice a queue if it's a situation where you don't traditionally do so?

[Sazzle41]

Can i ask, on the same subject is the one queue for two 10 items only tills a Southern thing? I have never experienced it til i got to London and find it confusing seeing a till with seemingly no queue , only to be fiercely told 'there is one (humongous) queue' . Why ?? Whats wrong with a queue at each one, thats what happens in the Midlands and North for 10 items or less !!
What am i missing logic wise (assume there IS some logic)!

[Shodan]

I had a bit of a heated debate with DH recently about a queuing system (sad case that I am).

It was one of those queues where there were three windows to go to and everyone had formed one queue in the middle, thus allowing the choice of whichever window became free. He was getting a bit testy at the 'lack' of queue at the two outer windows.

I repeatedly pointed out the fairness of the system and he couldn't see it!

How could he not understand??

[Vintagejazz]

Your DH was right Euphemia. I don't mind someone in the queue rushing off for something they've forgotten; but holding a place in the queue while your partner fills a trolley is not on. I would object to that too.

I also hate people in supermarkets who hover between two queues and then sidle into the one that's moving fastest as if they've been in it all along. YOU ARE NOT FOOLING ANYONE!

[SistersOfPercy]

I remember waiting for a bus in LA once. As soon as it arrived everyone shot forward and it was every man/woman for themselves. I soon learned to put aside my politeness and CHARGE!!!!!!

[MrsWinnibago]

I can NEVER work out which is the "right" end of the bus stop. I stand behind the thing if it's not raining and then let everyone on before me...unless I saw them arrive after me!

[Katiepoes]

Shodan I accidentally queue skipped at an M&S Express because of that - I live in Holland and the whole 'one line for several registers' thing just does not work here. I've been here so long I genuinely forgot...and when in the UK recently sailed merrily up to pay for my lunch, only noticing the line of seething office workers glaring at me. Oops.

[IneedAwittierNickname]

I have the same problem MrsWinnibago the end that the buses used to stop at is now apparently the end
If you face the electronic timetable when queuing (whixh seems logical)then you will be facing against the direction of travel. However this is the way we have always queued at this particular stop (is been my stop for 10 years) but recently buses have been stopping at the other end meaning I'm at the back of the queue.

[Dubjackeen]

I used to get a bus to work. It would be fairly empty approaching my stop, so it didn't matter much who got on first. Most people politely waited for whoever had been at the stop before them, to board. Except for one lass who assumed that she should always board first, even if there had been ten people there before her.
I let it pass most of the time, even though I was usually first at the stop. One morning though, I pointedly stepped in front of her, and boarded first. I am pretty sure I heard a gasp of amazement, maybe indignation, from her. It worked though. She started to cop on that the rest of us weren't just standing admiring the bus stop, and the bus...we actually were planning to travel too! She started to wait her turn.

[Shodan]

Katiepoes - Ah yes, the British Queuers' Silent Seethe. You were lucky to get out of there alive without a sotto voce "Tut" to reprove you.

Fortunately for DH I managed to wrestle him to the ground restrain his anarchic tendencies and he lived to tell the tale.

[SaucyJack]

I love a good queue, me.

I have a big wheeled tank of a pram for DD3 and when I'm in London- or anywhere else where I'm forced to encounter ruffians foreigners with no etiquette, it gives me enormous pleasure to push it in front of people at ticket barriers to block them off from coming up the outside of queues and pushing in at the front.

[shoofly]

Last October half term, queued for an age at the British Museum. I was seething at 2 french students who kept trying to drift in front of us. Dh, me, ds1 & ds2 in buggy. This went on for almost an hour in the ridiculous queue and when we got to the front they sidestepped us to sprint up the steps. I did smile when we got inside to see security taking their rucksack apart at the entrance as we trundled past them again.

[wowfudge]

You should ask the bus company to install a numbered queuing ticket machine, in the style of the supermarket deli. Then everyone boards the bus in the order of their queue ticket: 'Now serving passenger number 1' and so on.

However, I find that at customer services in our local Ikea even this is beyond the wit of many people, despite the large sign stating 'please take a ticket' with a big, black arrow pointing at the ticket machine.

[wowfudge]

Sazzle - don't try that in our local, northern Morrisons unless you want a fight! It's one queue for all here.

[Ledkr]

At peppa fucking pig land a guy was queuing alone for a ride which I thought weird (toddler ride) then of course the rest if his huge family came at the last minute.
I'm not sure if I was right but I felt fuming and was glad he was behind me and not in front or I think I'd have said something!

[SignYourName]

Ah but wowfudge, what if there was a queue for the ticket machine to get your ticket for the queue?

Douglas Adams and John Lloyd were familiar with a particular form of queue jumping, as their book The Meaning of Liff included a definition thus:

"FOINDLE (vb.)
To queue-jump very discreetly by working one's way up the line without being spotted doing so."

My DH and I have been known to comment loudly "hmm, nice foindle!" when spotting a would-be foindler.