Queue Quandary
I was at the supermarket last week as I so often am not, and was faced with a moral dilemma.
The supermarket was quite busy and I had just joined the end of one of several longish queues to check-out. The store staff were on the ball that day because noticing the situation they decided to open a new check-out lane. And this is where I found myself in a quandary.

As the checkout chick walked past to open up a new lane she asked me to come over to form the queue. As opposed to sneakily queue jumping I was actually invited to do so on this occasion, and I obliged. I even helped move the shopping trolley out of the way. Perhaps I did so to appease my guilty conscience as on-lookers stabbed me all over with their contemptuous glares. Thankfully I only had a handful of items and paid by card so was out of that uncomfortable situation rather quickly, or at least quicker than most.
But that’s where there’s a problem: What if I had been patiently waiting for quite some time in a queue and had passed the point of no return, ie. was walled-in by the impulse candy section and unable to escape my queue to join another? Surely if anyone was deserving of gratification it would have been these people. I would have been annoyed to say the least. That day I escaped some annoyance; many others didn’t.
In this scenario it seems that people at the end of queues – those who have waited the shortest time, like myself – were to benefit the most from a new check-out opening.
And this brings me to a similar situation related to driving on Sydney’s fine roads though I believe it affects drivers everywhere. If drivers in other cities have developed a strategy for this problem I’d love to hear it – there are many things that take a while before reaching the Land of Oz.

I’ll set the scene: You’re driving along on a road with two or more lanes. Suddenly there is a breakdown or similar in front on your lane causing the cars behind to come to a grinding halt. Now you must turn on the indicators and try to change lanes in an attempt to get around the obstruction.
You know what happens next… The people who have waited the shortest time or no time at all are usually the first to exit the situation because by spotting the incident from afar have changed lanes early on and cruise straight past as you sit there hopelessly until the very last car behind you has done the same. Again, the first person in the queue is often the one feeling the deepest burn.
It is becoming rarer and rarer that you meet a nice driver who will give way to you – due to the sheer number it would be impractical to do so anyway. Other times there may be someone slow in pulling out and you are presented with a golden opportunity to exit before the steady stream of cars starts moving towards you. But again, it is usually the cars behind you that are able to seize such opportunities first!
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