Contagious Behavior

     What's wrong with this picture?  First, everyone is walking without looking where they're going... because their eyes & fingers are glued to their phones.  More importantly, the green traffic light is useless.

     Typical of Manhattan--especially commuters who must endure crappy commutes, people are selfish.  Perhaps because their city government is selfish--and that impacts most aspects of their city life--they choose to act similarly.  The city neglects decades of gridlock, neglects its bridges/tunnels, neglects jaywalking, neglects bike lanes, neglects the timing sequence of successive traffic lights, and neglects its road quality.  Therefore, when the traffic light turned red, drivers uncaringly still proceeded into the middle of the intersection.  Somehow, they figured that it gave them an advantage and prevented further delays.  In reality, it merely impeded the opposite flow of traffic.  That's how traffic jams occur.  But nobody cares.  A police car stuck in the oncoming traffic did nothing about it and did not issue violation tickets to any of the troublemaking vehicles.  (I guess it wasn't "Quota Time" yet).  

     Look at how many vehicles "went along" with the illegal maneuver.  The intersection is full of crosstown traffic that doesn't care about backing up oncoming cars along busy Sixth Avenue... during Rush Hour.  It has been a never-ending phenomenon in NYC for 40 years, yet it rarely occurs in civilized places.  

     Then again, rubber-necking is another American disfunction that is rare in civilized countries.  It happens when drivers slow down merely to ogle at car crashes or a vehicle with flashing lights, on the side of the road/expressway.  They don't care that they're forcing people behind them to slow down unnecessarily.  They don't care that such a pattern of pauses eventually shuts down the whole expressway behind them.  

     Driver's Education should be immensely better in America, with reoccurring tests to ensure smartness.  One lesson to "kick the habit" of rubber-necking should be to observe a stream of marbles rolling down a ramp.  As the instructor puts his hand into the flow--just for a moment--it results in a huge backlog of "traffic".  Alas, few people care, and more people unwittingly believe that such phenomenons are normal for the situation.  Their apathy for efficiency certainly makes it easy for their lazy, overpaid government.

    Such American/NYC behavior might explain why there is constantly large quantities of irresponsibly neglected dog poop in Astoria, NY.  Right in the middle of the sidewalk.  Nearly every day.  You can't even enjoy your walk, because you must keep your eyes focused on the sidewalk to watch out where you step... all because others are uncaringly selfish/degenerated.  

The filthy behavior extends to some local stores and laundromats, too.

What kind of lowlife, third-world society is this?