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by vasco 1588 days ago
Always go through the right side, is this not a rule in your country? I'm asking not knowing where I learned it, but it definitely is a social norm to take the right side of the sidewalk anytime this may happen. Everyone just does this and it works out great.
2 comments

Oh how I wish everybody understood this. Even in crowded cities in the US you get a lot of people who do not understand this. A minority to be sure, but a sizable one (I’d estimate between 5-10%, probably 10% but sometimes people who aren’t cognizant of this are accidentally correct in their pathing choice). Unfortunately this means you need to sometimes make split second decisions that this person probably has no idea what they’re doing and instead just figure out how to get around them regardless of convention
We move to the left in Uk, Aus and some other formerly British influenced countries.

Except! for escalators in the London subway. There you stay right. Presumably because of so many tourists from the US and the continent.

It makes sense if you are on a pavement as if someone needs to step into the road it should be the person facing the oncoming traffic.

Nobody really does it though.

It is the left side in my country. Which creates a problem when people from right-sided countries visit my city.

I noticed this in China, a densely populated mostly right-sided country. Whenever a British engineering firm would install escalators they would set the direction opposite to the flow of human traffic. You would walk up to it on the path on the right side and be forced to cross the path of oncoming people to use the escalator on the left before having to cross over again once at the top.