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An anonymous Op-Ed in The Guardian asserts that English has no word for politeness ("What's the worst thing about cycling? Other cyclists", 7/5/2014):

Interestingly, while we're on the subject of Japan, it has a large cycling population and many cycling laws – all of which are completely ignored. Cyclists regularly ride on paths and, indeed, police will even direct them on to walkways if they see them on roads. And yet cyclists, drivers and pedestrians get along fine. How does it work? In a word, politeness – one of those Japanese concepts with no direct translation into English.

There's a true statement somewhere behind this unusually absurd version of the "no word for X" trope. In 25 years of walking several miles a day in Philadelphia, I don't think I've ever seen a cyclist stop for a red light unless they were in imminent danger of being flattened by crossing automobiles, as opposed to flattening crossing pedestrians.

Of course, what counts as politeness is culturally dependent. The other day, as 30 or so pedestrians in a tour group were using a zebra crossing, I observed a cyclist approaching the red light at high speed shouting "Watch out! Watch out! Watch out!" as he wove through the group without slowing down. No doubt he thought of the shouted warning as good manners.

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