DEAR MISS MANNERS: I frequent a gas station that has four sets of pumps (with nozzles on both sides), a convenience store/coffee shop, plenty of parking away from the pumps, and designated handicapped spaces right near the door.

I regularly observe drivers pull their cars up to the pumps, get out, go into the store, come back out, get into their cars and leave — without pumping any gas. Meanwhile, there are cars lined up waiting for a pump.

For reasons I cannot explain, this behavior really irritates me. Are we so lazy that we can’t walk the extra 30 feet from a parking space on the side of the station, instead of blocking a pump because it’s closer to the door?

GENTLE READER: Probably. Even though surely everyone knows that inconveniencing others — by tying up a resource you are not using — is obviously discourteous.

Irritating as it is, you cannot redirect it. Bad things happen when one walks into oncoming traffic.

Miss Manners can already imagine what is heading her way: people intent on justifying the behavior. “There wasn’t anyone waiting for the pumps when I went in,” they may say, or, “It’s also a parking space, and that’s what I was using it for.” “I was there first.” “I have a weak bladder and I had to get to the bathroom urgently.” She hopes that she will not see you approaching in the other direction, this answer in hand, bent on rudely accosting the next transgressor.

Please send your questions to Miss Manners at her website, www.missmanners.com; to her email, [email protected]; or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.