To be astounded at colleagues' reluctance to walk?

[FlannelTinyTowel]

I recently worked with a colleague I've not worked with before. Part of our job involves going to people's homes. I was driving, with colleague directing a whole other thread as she was more familiar with the routes and locations (she usually drives).

At one point, she told me the house we were going to was on the right, so I pulled over and parked between the parked cars on the right.

She told me it was a bit further down the road, as if I had pulled over too soon and should drive on a bit. Actually waited for me to restart the engine and drive on.

Turns out we were just THREE houses along from the correct one. It would have taken far longer to pull out (from the right) on the quite busy road, drive approx. 20 metres to the next space, then pull over and park again, than to walk this v v short distance.

I was gobsmacked at this.

There were a few other similar incidents/comments in the same day.

I should add - colleague doesn't have any disabilities that make walking harder (pretty sure of this due to other aspects of the job including having to walk on occasion), and it was a pleasant day, not cold or raining.

AIBU to be astounded by her reluctance to walk? (And a despairing at this planet-destroying mindset?)

Which etiquette bible did you get this bollox from?

My ILs live a 5m.walk from a train station directll.to the city centre. They come to meet us to visit the German markets by car. MIL will NOT get the train, even though it's faster, cheaper than parking, and FIL drives so he can't even have a drink!

I wont use public transport either, too much anti social behaviour. I also dont want my parents using it.

At one job, we always parked as close as possible in case we had to leave very, very quickly.

At my previous office we used to go to a pub for lunch occasionally. One day we had a colleague visiting from America and asked if she’d come along. It was about 5 mins walk along a flat road. I had to get her a taxi back. Cheapest taxi I’ve ever had! She was very large and was not used to walking.

There's a school mum at my dcs school who lives on the same road as the school and she drives in.
This is not a long rd. 50 houses or so.
There are no disabilities or anything at all.
We'll have a chat in the school, she'll walk over to where she parked (not right by the school as it's all yellow lines) and I'll start walking down the road.
I always reach her house before she does.
Madness.

Lol! As someone who lives on a road with a primary school and two nurseries I really did laugh at this!

My Dad used to drive to the nearest postbox. It was 5 minutes walk away, max.

But he was in love with cars and lived quite a long part of his earlier YA years in the States and I think this influenced his behaviour.

She might have a disability you don't know about. She might have a disability she doesn't even know about (I spent 20 years struggling before and eagle eyed optician realised I had a systemic condition)

She might have been injured or just have been feeling under the weather.

It's very hard to judge without knowing.

I remember quietly judging a mum who drove next to no distance from home to school but thankfully no saying anything. Then we became friends and it turned out she had arthritis that flared horribly at times.

I bet all kinds of fuckers judge me for parking in the expensive car park near work but it is absolutely the only way I can manage my day in the office and it takes me several days to recover from it.

Have you had a nosy in her medical records?

@CassandraWebb I know her very well and she's often said "you're so good walking. I'm just so busy"
A group of us would go for an evening walk sometimes and she'd join in so, I doubt she had some medical condition that she's told no one about.
Some people really just can't be bothered.

But asking someone to re park the car isn’t on.

@FlannelTinyTowel I also wonder if she has a health condition but I have had a few that I wouldn’t disclose at work.

Possibly. Equally I can walk several miles some days, other days I can barely get out of bed. You just don't know.

@CassandraWebb not everyone has genuine reasons. It doesn't reflect on you as you do.

Equally I didn't know for the first 20 years of my adult life that I did have genuine reasons. So there will be many others like me who struggle on undiagnosed

I know some people get a warm fuzzy feeling from judging others though and it's probably immensely annoying to have anyone puncture that feeling with explanations

The road adjacent to ours, has car barns for all the houses in it. Most of the time they’re empty, but the roadside is full of parked cars, restricting access for anyone else. Sometimes it feels like weaving in and out of them is driving through a chicane.

Before I used a wheelchair, I wasn't visibly disabled and wasn't in the habit of disclosing my private medical information to anyone. I'm sure people thought I was a fat, lazy CF when in reality I have an autoimmune condition that causes masses of pain and makes it difficult to walk at all.

I used to work in a hotel in Massachusetts. Our department was at one end of the main building, payroll at the other. My colleagues would drive to the other end of the building and back to collect payslips, rather than walk along the corridor. It blew their minds that I cycled home.

I used to have a friend (she has moved abroad now!) who regularly ran half marathons. But she, very irritatingly if you were with her, would drive round and round the supermarket car park until there was a space right next to the entrance. I never understood it.

If they don’t have a gym within walking distance, what do you expect them to do, @magicmushrooms?

If you're working in the community and doing home visits, should you not be parking directly outside the person's home so your car is within easy reach for safety purposes so you can access it quickly and easily in an unsafe scenario? Obviously if it's a busy street and that's not possible that's different.

I can't believe you were 'astounded' by this 😂

I was with you until you said “planet destroying”. Are you always this dramatic and wrong? I take it you grow your own vegetables and don’t use and electricity ever?

Driving is the opposite of legwork. You do it sitting down!

Walking is legwork!

I live less than a mile away from our town centre. Sometimes I do drive- esp if doing the big weekly shop- however the default position is to walk or cycle.

I’ve not lived here that long.
A friend - who has lived locally all her life (she’s 40!) recently admitted she walked down for the first time and was really surprised how “easy” it was.
No disabilities, and she’s fit, I see her the gym!

yeah, gobsmacked