Like many people, I spend a fair amount of time annoyed by other people who get in the way — who have many places that they might be, but choose to be in one of the few places in which they are obstructive. Unlike most annoyed people, I go at the matter with a scientific curiosity. Why, really, do some people get in the way?
Many people lack situational awareness, and simply don't recognize that they are in the way; but that part of the explanation is negative. People don't merely distribute themselves randomly when they ought to avoid certain places; a disproportionate share get in the way.
Some people seek a sense of efficacy in obstruction — we might call them “space-trolls”. But a lot of people who get in the way seem not to be malicious. I think that something about staging-areas and the like is unconsciously attractive to them; so, without situational awareness, they move into these places. But I don't know just what that something is.
I most often think about people who get in the way when they get in my way (though I am furious when they needlessly get in the way of anyone). So I think about them as I try to haul-in and put-away the patio furniture at the bistro. This after-noon, as I was doing that, I began thinking more seriously about constructing a theory.
And, then, I saw an extreme example. A very few minutes before closing, a family came to the bistro, ordered food, and then members of the family began unstacking some of the chairs that I'd stacked, and the family sat where they would block most of any effort to bring any of the other furniture into the building.
I wouldn't do anything to harm what the owners might regard as their interests, so I didn't confront these people. A manager told them that they'd have to sit inside.
As I mentioned, the family had arrived just before closing. They lingered well after closing. When the manager finally told them they would have to leave, in all seriousness they asked if the employees should simply be expected to stay until the last customer chose to leave.
Some problems really need a solution.
But the problem of a proper theory is another matter.