When rain comes out to play, etiquette gets washed way. Despite Vancouver’s long-running rain-city status, perfecting parasol protocol is still a work in progress.
An informal survey conducted by Metro found “awning hoggers” top the list of umbrella pet-peeves — with one-third of participants marking it as their biggest rainy-day irk.
“It’s especially annoying if you don’t have an umbrella,” Helen Yu, a 34-year-old downtown coffee shop owner, said while escaping the rain under a Davie Street awning. “I don’t have one, so I’m walking under here to stay dry. If you do, stop hogging the space.”
The second biggest complaint: Umbrella fender-benders with fellow pedestrians.
Standing at five-foot-11, BCIT student Karen Wazny vents her personal vex as “being tall and having rude shorter people practically poking me in the eye with their umbrellas.”
Others resonate with irritations that come with wet umbrellas placed on bus and SkyTrain seats, ruining the spot for fellow riders.
Rounding up the list of annoyances are concerns about umbrellas opened indoors. “They throw that bad luck at you,” said Srdjan Zivkovic, a 20-year-old Douglas College student about those neglecting superstitions. “Unless you got your rabbits foot in your pocket, it’s doomsday by association.”
