walk on the right here
During my travels, one of the things I’ve found interesting is not only the differences of what side of the road cars drive on, but also what side of the sidewalk people walk. Driving is easy, everyone better do it or else it’s going to get messy. The lines generally make things pretty clear, and you would generally assume that for good reason, while rules such as speeding, and even stopping fully at stop signs or red lights may get ignored or taken lightly, the concept of staying on the proper side of the road would always be followed. Sure even with this there are exceptions, like the times when driving down the highway in the Rajasthan region of India, amongst three lanes of traffic heading in the proper direction, there was a lone car which decided driving against traffic was the best bet. One could only assume that the alternative of driving around and looping back was too much of a big deal to deal with.
One thing that has always left me somewhat perplexed is what side of the sidewalk to walk on. Its sort of the same thing as driving in many respects. Walk down the street and come face to face with someone walking in the opposite direction, and there’s a good chance that they’ll dart over to their right to avoid you. New York is easy in this respect, escalators and sidewalks almost all follow the rule of walk on the right.
Bangkok and Tokyo where vehicle traffic flows on the left side, this rule seem to be a bit quite relaxed. Take the escalators for instance, on countless occasions, which side the up or down escalators were on would switch, even within a single series. So while you might be on the left heading down one escalator, when it came to the next one you might need to cross over to the right side to continue down.
Stairs and corridors into and around the subways were even more unpredictable. Some would be marked to walk on the left, and others would be marked walk on the right. If there is no common rule underground in a somewhat controlled environment, could there be one above ground where there’s a lot more space to wander. So when walking down the sidewalk, which side is appropriate? Is there a rule? If not, and you are walking head on into someone, what direction should you dart over to? Do you both just come to a complete stop till one person waves the other one on?
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