You are walking side by side with a friend along a narrow pavement on the side closest to the road. You espy two people walking towards you, as they get close nobody seems to be budging. Do you
Step into the road to walk round
1(7.1%)
Hold your ground and be damned
1(7.1%)
If they get any closer punch them in the face
0(0.0%)
Become vaporous and let them pass through you
0(0.0%)
Call the police
0(0.0%)
Do a barrel roll and try and score a strike
0(0.0%)
Dive into the bushes/Over the wall to the other side of your walking companion
0(0.0%)
Form a single file behind the person you are walking with
9(64.3%)
Form a single file in front of the person you are walking with
2(14.3%)
Jump onto the shoulders of the person you are walking with
0(0.0%)
Shove the person you are walking with into the two people walking towards you
1(7.1%)
Pavement etiquette
Recently, while walking through towns, cities and villages I’ve noticed a trend where people play a game of chicken with other pedestrians. Sometimes, especially on narrow paths, people will walk two or three abreast and lack the courtesy to go single file to allow approaching pedestrians to pass
without them stepping into the road. It’s worse with those pushing prams who seem to think they have a God given right to plough on toward oncoming pedestrians regardless.
Quite often I feel like I am the weakest link in this slow pedestrian version of Red Rover and frequently find myself putting my life at risk by stepping into the road or diving into hedgerows to
allow others to pass. Even when I see people approaching when I’m walking two abreast I obligingly step into the road or attempt to form a single file but it seems, and often feels like, I am the only one who does this.
I’ve attempted to hold my ground in the past. But there is only so much sour faced unapologetic abuse one can put up with and I always end up reverting to the game of Don’t Get Killed by stepping into the road.
Is it just me? Am I the only one that puts up with this rudeness? Surely when you see people approaching when you are walking and the path is too narrow to accommodate everyone, the right thing to do is everyone form single file to allow people to pass without causing death or injury? Or is it that people today are impatient? Wary of strangers? Or simply participants in some deadly game I am unaware of?
I checked the internet and found a number of resources that tell me that pavement etiquette is an actual thing and the issue is global.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedestrian_etiquette
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28352045
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/rules-for-pedestrians-1-to-35#general-guidance-rules-1-to-6
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