People Who Don’t Understand Sidewalk Manners
by Rease Kirchner
This has happened to all of us. You are walking along, trying to make it to your destination. Maybe you are in a rush, maybe you’re not- it doesn’t matter. Then, it happens– a slow walker. They merge in front of you and suddenly trap you in their painfully slow rhythm. You feel like you are trying to walk up a down escalator as you desperately try to figure out how any human’s legs could possibly move so slow. You dodge left, you weave right but, as luck would have it, slow walkers are almost always sidewalk hogging zig zaggers as well. If you’re like me, this is the point when you start mentally screaming MOVE MOVE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WALK!
Eventually, you will be able to get around this slow walker. If you are having an especially rough sidewalk day, you might immediately run into the bad manners sidewalk people. These are the people who stop dead in their tracks to do or look at something like check their phone, light a cigarette, have a lengthy conversation with a long lost friend they have stumbled upon in the streets, etc. Or perhaps someone who is walking in the opposite direction and decides to look you in the eye and play chicken as they plow directly towards you.
Am I one of the few people left that treats sidewalks as I would the road? Stay to the right, allow faster walkers to pass, never cross into oncoming traffic and never make unexpected stops. Pretty simple rules people, let’s put them into good use.
The irony of this post is I didn’t even walk around the day I wrote it as I was bedridden (See From Thriller to Chills and Fevers) I suppose this issue annoys me enough on a daily basis that the irritation is always on my mind.
Rease is a US citizen currently living the ex-pat life in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is bilingual and an experienced traveler. She loves gaining and sharing knowledge of local cultures, customs and adventure.
