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General discussion (archive)Stupid question for the Brits on here. (71 posts)(71 posts)
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Posted April 22, 2014
I admit, this is a stupid question.

Say you and another person are walking down a corridor from opposite ends (walking toward each other). When you get closer, you step to the side to let the other person pass so you both could walk without pausing. What side would you customarily step to ... left or right?

This happened to me yesterday as we were walking down the hall, I instinctively moved to my right (and the other guy moved to his right) so we could both pass by without pausing. As I was walking back to my office, I was wondering why it was natural to move to the right and not the left. In fact if i had moved to the left, I would've bumped into the other person. My first guess was that we moved to the right because we drive on the right.

So does that mean if you drive on the left, you walk on the left too?

See, told you it was pretty stupid.
Posted April 22, 2014
If one of them is an American it doesn't really matter; we tend to walk down the middle of the hall and push people out of the way whichever side they are on.
Posted April 22, 2014
Yeah, forgot to mention. I'm an American too.
Posted April 22, 2014
It's not necessarily stupid. There is a branch of anthropology studiying "ethnomethods", that is culturally assimilated unconscious methods for such things. One exemple was filming opposing crowds when they get launched at each others at traffic lights crossings, and studying how they don't collide but form a series of "arrows" with triangular groups of people following some crowd breaker person. You can check for Garfinkel's studies, and all the ones who continued his researches in various contexts.

As for your question, I'm no Brit, but I don't think I have a favoured side, I probably take many elements of the surrounding in account. I think that ethnomethodologists, here, would point at little inconscious body signals that pedestrians send each others, and that announce which way they'll go, in some sort of rapid automated négociations (that sometimes fails). I think it has more to do with that than with "driving side" habits (or do non-drivers behave differently ?).

But I don't remember any specific study on it, and I haven't paid attention to it myself (I guess that if you pay attention yourself, you do it consciously, and spoil the experiment). Maybe an outside observation would reveal a reccuring pattern in my way to deal with opposing pedestrians.

Related question, I guess : which side of the escalators are used to "walking" and for "stationary" people ?
Posted April 22, 2014
This has very little to do with the country you live in, Just cause we drive on 1 side of the road doesnt mean we always walk on that side of the corridor.
Posted April 22, 2014
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Telika: It's not necessarily stupid. There is a branch of anthropology studiying "ethnomethods", that is culturally assimilated unconscious methods for such things. One exemple was filming opposing crowds when they get launched at each others at traffic lights crossings, and studying how they don't collide but form a series of "arrows" with triangular groups of people following some crowd breaker person. You can check for Garfinkel's studies, and all the ones who continued his researches in various contexts.

As for your question, I'm no Brit, but I don't think I have a favoured side, I probably take many elements of the surrounding in account. I think that ethnomethodologists, here, would point at little inconscious body signals that pedestrians send each others, and that announce which way they'll go, in some sort of rapid automated négociations (that sometimes fails). I think it has more to do with that than with "driving side" habits (or do non-drivers behave differently ?).

But I don't remember any specific study on it, and I haven't paid attention to it myself (I guess that if you pay attention yourself, you do it consciously, and spoil the experiment). Maybe an outside observation would reveal a reccuring pattern in my way to deal with opposing pedestrians.

Related question, I guess : which side of the escalators are used to "walking" and for "stationary" people ?
Interesting.

Around here, it's nearly always on the right. Including escalators.
Posted April 22, 2014
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Telika: Related question, I guess : which side of the escalators are used to "walking" and for "stationary" people ?
Here in Germany, it's "Right side: standing; left side: walking". I've even seen signs dangling over escalators which gave exactly these instructions.

Regarding the original question, I agree with your assessment.

I'd guess that the single largest factor that determines the decision to which side to evade, is simply a quick assessment of how you're oriented to each other and where's more room. Other context data, like where you're heading to, will also factor in.

I think it's not unlikely that people will prefer their culture's "driving side" under lab conditions (send people exactly straight against each other, same amount of room on each side, no context whatsoever). But I'm also pretty sure that this effect will almost never be relevant in real life, because it will always be overlain by the real-world context.
Posted April 22, 2014
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reaver894: This has very little to do with the country you live in
Actually it does - you know in the UK we do the "pavement dance" every single fucking time and it always results in both people saying sorry before continuing on to walk face first into a lamp-post!
I doubt another country has such an antiquainted way of dealing with it!
Post edited April 22, 2014 by Sachys
Posted April 22, 2014
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Telika: Related question, I guess : which side of the escalators are used to "walking" and for "stationary" people ?
Well, here in Denmark, it's "stand on the right side, walk on the left side", although the whole concept of walking on escalators has only really caught on here within the last decade, or at least the concept of moving over to the right so that the people who do want to walk on them can do so on the left side. For reference, we drive on the right side here. My guess is that that is also why the escalator "rules" are the way they are. When driving, overtaking another car on its right side is not only illegal, but also very much frowned upon. I'm guessing that carries over into the escalator thing.

Personally, when facing the hallway or sidewalk scenario, I always go right, at least partially due to a conscious recognition of the fact that we drive on the right side here. Given that that is the rule for both cars and bicycles, I think carrying it over to pedestrians as well, at least informally, can only make it easier for everyone.
Posted April 22, 2014
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reaver894: This has very little to do with the country you live in
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Sachys: Actually it does - you know in the UK we do the "pavement dance" every single fucking time and it always results in both people saying sorry before continuing on to walk face first into a lamp-post!
I doubt another country has such an antiquainted way of dealing with it!
Same happens here. A little dance, an embarrassed quick apology while nervously smiling and avoiding to look at the other person, then an instant escape that more often than not results in walking right into a lamp post or a garbage can. Or some sort of pillar the exact height as to hit someone's genitals.
Post edited April 22, 2014 by groze
Posted April 22, 2014
Next time I get a drink at a terrasse, I might watch the pedestrians to see if there is any general trend about that.

Edit:
I mean about the "left" vs "right" thing. Not the "lamp post" vs "garbage can" vs "testicles-high pillar" stats.
Post edited April 22, 2014 by Telika
Posted April 22, 2014
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Telika: Next time I get a drink at a terrasse, I might watch the pedestrians to see if there is any general trend about that.
And get thrown out for acting creepy by ogling people walking by. XD
Posted April 22, 2014
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groze:
AH! So perhaps it is a custom originating with the portugese seamen that manned the fleet against the spanish armada!

What a grand occasion each pavement dance is then! ;)

...I'm lucky in most places to be too tall for my genitals to suffer misfortune... except here...
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Telika: Next time I get a drink at a terrasse, I might watch the pedestrians to see if there is any general trend about that.

Edit:
I mean about the left vs right thing. Not the lamp post vs garbage can vs testicles-high pillar.
are you telling me you'll be watching all of those things anyway?!
Post edited April 22, 2014 by Sachys
Posted April 22, 2014
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Sachys: are you telling me you'll be watching all of those things anyway?!
No. I tend to simply check the "lamp/garbage/pillar" thing by ear.
Posted April 22, 2014
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reaver894: This has very little to do with the country you live in, Just cause we drive on 1 side of the road doesnt mean we always walk on that side of the corridor.
That's interesting. I'd always assumed that we kept to the right hand side of the hall because we keep to the right side of the road.

But, you are right that there isn't necessarily any reason why the two need to match. In fact, by convention a lot of things are to the right from the side of the hall to kissing.
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General discussion (archive)Stupid question for the Brits on here. (71 posts)(71 posts)
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