Pet-peeve of the moment:
When you get to the end of an escalator, it is considered common courtesy to GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE WAY!
I tend to notice this happening with the more senior set. The end of the escalator is NOT the proper place to pause, look around for the nearest Starbucks, count your change, scratch your crotch, etc. There are people doing mach 2 about to get up close and personal the ABC way. Unless you have a strong desire to become a moron projectile, I suggest you step off to the side.
I’m with kabbes on this. I do live in the US, and this is the first I’ve ever heard of the idea that there is a correct side of a hall to walk on. Obviously there are a great many people who don’t know this ‘rule’ or you would almost never run into any problems. At the school where I teach, we teach the students to always walk on the side of the path away from the doors, so they dont get hit by someone opening a door into them. Depending on which way you are going, this is sometimes the left, and sometimes the right.
Never EVER heard of walking on the right being a “rule”, a universal value, instinctive, divinely mandated, “the polite thing to do,” genetically encoded, or in any way, shape or form being the right and natural order of things. Usual in some places, yes. But never mandatory or expected.
As Number Six pointed out, what I did come across a lot in my younger years (and was drilled into me by an extraordinarily violent collision that sent me to get my skull X-rayed) was that you should not walk where a door may suddenly swing out in your face, nor approach a corner or entryway on on the inside. Otherwise, if you don’t want to run into people, look where you’re going.
Oh, and if I feel like strolling leisurely down the sidewalk or the hall I will. Except in the Metro escalator, I will NOT “get out of your way.” In all other situations, only if politely and gently asked if I may be so kind as to let you through will I do so.
And to complicate things even more, doesn’t the Army march on the left?? (i.e. 2 columns moving in opposite direction will pass on one another’s right)