I am annoyed if I end up doing the “sidewalk” dance with someone walking the other way on the sidewalk. You know - the bit where you both move in the same direction to avoid each other, and then simultaneously back, and then repeat until the pattern (or your nose) is broken.
My solution to avoiding this *very *serious problem is to apply a consistent rule: The correct side of sidewalk to travel down is the right-hand side, just as it is with roads 'round these parts. Faced with an oncoming pedestrian, I’ll move over to the right, and there I will stay, with exceptions made only for the old & infirm. If you want to avoid a collision, get your butt over to the right side of the sidewalk.
In my experience, this is what most people do naturally. Stepping out of the way for the odd ducks that perversely walk down the left side only encourages their antisocial behavior.
I am curious about whether or not there is a general consensus about the “right” way to walk down the sidewalk - or if picking a side, sticking to it, and requiring other pedestrians to adjust themselves accordingly is the sort of thing that a stubborn dick might do.
Wal-Mart here has two automatic doors. The one on the left says “entrance” and the one on the right says “exit”. That is the silliest thing I have ever heard. I purposely disobey the signs and enter the right side. Because you should always go in the right door, no matter what signs say.
As a kid I was taught to walk on the right side, and I still do. Fortunately it seems like most people do the same, unless they’re incredibly rude or thoughtless.
So it’s not just here? I’ve seen 3 Wal-marts set up that way. And since then, two of them have relabeled the doors so they’re correct. What were they thinking?!
Keep to the right, people. It’ll make everyone’s lives, even yours, easier if we all do the same thing.
If I have the sidewalk to myself I tend towards the middle. I keep to the right if there is oncoming pedestrian traffic. If I see an approaching pedestrian is on “my” side of the 'walk, I’ll cross over to the left for a woman or a child. Otherwise I’ll engage in an immature game of sidewalk chicken.
Now if see a bike approaching me on the sidewalk…well, we’ve had entire threads about that already, haven’t we?
You’re the one, hell I just thought you couldn’t read.
I meander, sometimes just because but mostly there are no sidewalk rules. I do move exactly half a person over when I meet someone, they get to move the other half.
I mostly keep to the Right like a good person, but when I was in college, I liked to see what other people would do if I walked on the Left. I didn’t do it if the sidewalk was crowded, but on my way to early morning classes, crossing the quad, I’d walk on the left side. There would be one other person headed my way and s/he would often go out of the way to walk out on the grass just to avoid passing me on the ‘wrong’ side.
Generally I meander, but the sidewalks around here aren’t usually crowded, I stay aware of people around me and I’m happy to get out of the way. If it’s crowded I stay to the right or cheerfully weave through the crowd if needed.
Maybe they were thinking that the doors are on the left side of the store and the registers are to the right, and that they don’t want the two streams of people crossing each other as they come in and go out. At least, I can see that as one legitimate reason for setting up the doors that way. But you go ahead and do what you think is best, ignore the signs, and I will roll my eyes at you as I’m trying to exit with my full cart.
For me, I try to walk on the right side (same as driving traffic, in other words; in Japan the reverse is true). However, I don’t make a federal case of it if someone coming the other way is on “my” side. Generally this happens when the right side of the sidewalk (in my direction) is next to the buildings, and someone coming the other way is walking right next to the buildings for apparently no particular reason (it isn’t raining or anything like that, nor are they window-shopping). If my context isn’t clear, I’m talking downtown, where there are lots of people. Anyway, if someone wants to hug the building it’s no big deal to walk around them.
It’s funny how people who know, on some level, that they are walking the wrong way, have the knack of pretending not to know that you’re there, so if we bump into each other they can say “Oops, sorry” instead of “Oops, I’m an idiot.” Or glare at you like you’re an idiot. “Why don’t you watch where you’re going?” while they’re completely oblivious.
Roddy
In the UK people mostly keep to the left, but that’s in line with driving on the left, so it’s the same thing really. Crowded streets like those in Soho often have huge crowds of people pushing all ways, but if you walk from one section of the Tube to another you’ll see that 99.99% of the people there keep to the left. I guess it’s more important when you’re in a tunnel.
Ken Livingstone (former Mayor) once proposed having a pedestrian ‘fast lane’ on pavements wide enough to accommodate one. I don’t think he was very serious and it could never work, but, man, I would so love that.
This is pretty much what I do - if that makes me a stubborn dick, I can live with that. I come to a complete halt if I have to - I’m on the correct side, you’re not, you move. I’ve started looking behind me, and sure enough, most of the wrong side walkers go right back to walking on the wrong side. There was an old woman killed here in Calgary last week on one of the multi-use paths - a roller-blader knocked her down and she died a day or two later. One or both of those path users was on the wrong side, and she died because of it. Since our city sidewalks have become home to all bike-riders, I consider it my civic duty to try to teach people the right side to walk on.
I try to usually walk on the right, unless I’ve been drinking
All kidding aside, the sidewalks around here are pretty narrow (or maybe I’m just that fat when carrying groceries home) and if facing oncoming sidewalk traffic, I’ll go as far to the right as possible. If that’s not enough, I’ll stop and give them my profile, making me smaller. But hopefully by stopping this lets the oncoming person know they have to move to their right as well.
Oops! I’m from a drive on the left country, and naturally I keep to the left on the pavement as well, so answered with option 2. Assume my answer is the same as all those from NA who said they keep to the right, i.e. option 1.
I keep to the right, but it’s not the oncoming traffic that is a problem; it’s the dawdlers going in my direction and walking down the middle of the sidewalk. Or worse, drifting all over the place. This drives me crazy. People move aside when they see each other approaching in opposite directions, but too many oblivious people walk right down the middle of the sidewalk, or travel three abreast or something (and people in groups always walk more slowly than individuals), generally making it as inconvenient as possible for somebody with a faster pace to walk past them from behind.
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. Sidewalk traffic rules are no different than road traffic rules. Stay to the right except to pass. If merging with an existing flow of traffic watch for traffic and yield if necessary. If crossing the flow of traffic, stop, look both ways, and proceed only when traffic is clear. It’s not rocket science.
It’s unbelievable how many people are oblivious, though. Unfortunately I live a mile and a half from the Lakefront Path (although to be honest, a lot of the times people on the path are only marginally better than sidewalk pedestrians).
What’s really infuriating are those that manage to find a way to occupy the entire width of the sidewalk, and refuse to move even when they’re looking directly at me. Look, dude, I have no intentions of running into the trees and shin-high landscape fences that line the sidewalk. This means you either move, or I run into YOU. Your choice.
And yes, there are many, many people who weave from one side of the sidewalk to the other like a drunken toddler. There was even one guy, who lunged to the left just as I pulled even with him, and managed to close an eight-foot gap between us in a split second and collide with me hard enough to make me stagger. No reason for this – aside from his friend immediately to his right, we were the only people within 2 blocks.
This is exactly what’s happening, at least in the last decade’s worth of Wal-Marts (and the principle seems to hold true for other chains). The entrance in a door set is the one farther from the cash register area, the exit is the one closer to the cash register area. The idea is to keep streams of entering customers from having to cross streams of exiting customers. (Cite: guess who I work for.)
Most supercenters have sets of doors both to the left and to the right of the registers, and you’ll find upon examination that (from the outside, facing the store) the set to the left of the registers will be ENTRANCE/EXIT, while the set to the right will be EXIT/ENTRANCE. Smaller supercenters and division 1 stores may have only one set of doors, the exit door will usually be the one closest to the registers, and unless the store is retrofitted into an older structure, the set will be to the right to maintain the traditional EXIT/ENTRANCE layout.
Not that it matters much in practice, where the door sensors are set to work both ways, and people just act oblivious to everyone else who is trying to enter or exit properly.
