Unwritten rules of walking on the pavement in England. These I have worked out
by observation...
If you are male walking with a lady you should walk on the road side of the
pavement so as to take the worst of the splashes from passing horses and
waggons (as it were). As to passing approaching walkers on the left or right -
when down in London as a commuter I noticed that most walked so as to pass left
to left. This was the seeming commuter rule which was not followed by tourists,
who walked anywhere and generally got in the way as we raced to/from train and
office.
That was London but in Brum or in our town of Oswestry (in the sticks miles
from a city) there seem to be no rules and people wander anywhere.
Another thing noticed while commuting was the ability of the London
commuter to operate on a narrow pavement very like boats often need to operate
on narrow shallow canals. Namely, commuters coming from opposite directions
approach each other with both in the centre of the pavement and just as they
meet each moves over a bit to slide past with (left) elbow withdrawn. Just as
on the canals when this is done by those in the know it works very nicely but
if a regular commuter met a tourist then often the tourist would panic and veer
wildly away - just as some boaters do when confronted with an approaching boat.
As to walking on the towpath we notice our latest model has a centre solid
strip of hard stuff just wide enough for a couple arm in arm, or one wheelchair
or one bike to fit down. To either side of this is grass and or weeds whose
height varies (nuff said). On such a towpath the BW bikers code says the biker
is the one who should give way to walkers and other users, but we seem to be
the only people we know who have a copy of BWs' bikers code.
Given this - oh for the days when bikers passed along our grass and mud
towpaths at 2mph barely being able to stay on due to the state of said towpath.
Now on BWs' multi million pound towpath network with boroughs like Stoke
sporting completely metalled towpaths - and signs telling cyclists to slow down
- it's all speed (greater than walking pace is speed to us) and get out of the
way you non-cyclists.
We even saw two bikers collide and have a punch-up on one canal towpath!
David Cragg
"Mack, David" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
John Glaves wrote:
> Very interesting for an anglophile like me. I have
> internalized driving on the left while
> boating on the right,
On the BCN Marathon a few years ago, we elected to go down the Engine
Branch backwards, so we could come back out again forwards, there being
no winding hole at the end. Halfway along we met another participant
who had gone in forwards and was now reversing back. Which side were we
supposed to pass on?
> but walking on a sidewalk baffles me.
As an anglophile you'll have to 'internalize' referring to the
'sidewalk' as the 'pavement'. :-)
> Which side is correct, or even preferred?
Traditionally the gentleman walks on the side closest to the traffic,
and the lady walks on the other side.
David Mack
---------------------------------
Sucker-punch spam with award-winning protection.
Try the free Yahoo! Mail Beta.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
