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The agony of pedestrian walking patterns


zelticgar

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7 hours ago, Isis said:

What we get in London is cyclists thinking it is their right to cycle along narrow canal paths in areas of central London, which are so narrow that you can only get two people walking in one direction and two people walking in the other direction. And they think that ringing their bell means you're going to jump out of their way. Don't fucking cycle along canals on hot sunny days when the paths are filled with people and there is no room for your bike (and it's not a cycle path). Just use the road instead or push your fucking bike and walk.

i used to cycle along regents canal, but only on way in for early turn (0500) or home from night duty (0600) when there was nobody on the canal path.  Also, i used to ride through Hackney and Tower Hamlets and i ride an expensive bike and didn't want to get robbed by the little fuckers.

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Ah, the cyclists dilemma. Ride on the footpath and get abused by pedestrians taking up the entire path, unwilling to move a foot to let you pass. Or ride on the roads and get repeated near misses, or just run off or hit by crazy / inattentive drivers.

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On 4/7/2017 at 3:23 PM, zelticgar said:

I'll preface this in the beginning by specifying this is a thread from the perspective of an American...

So I've been obsessing for years about how people in Cambridge do not seem to be able to walk on the correct side of the sidewalk. When on the sidewalk you need to emulate the the traffic patterns and stay to the right while walking on the sidewalk. If everyone follows this rule the result is a generally acceptable experience while walking to your destination because you will not have to randomly veer off in one direction or another to avoid oncoming people.  I run almost every morning before work and I am frequently walking between buildings so while it may seem trivial to some, a significant part of my week involves being on the sidewalk in a city. It is maddening to be in situations where you are politely keeping to the right only to find yourself engaged in a game of sidewalk chicken with someone walking towards you who is keeping to the left while you are keeping to the right. I've long held the theory that the primary reason for this common occurrence in Cambridge is due to the large population of foreign nationals coming from countries where driving and walking on the left is normal practice. It is not unusual for a student to attend Harvard, MIT, BU, Northeastern or the other dozens of schools in the area and never actually drive.  I believe they naturally follow the walking patterns that were embedded into their brains at a young age. I have my own opinions about whether they should be a little more proactive about recognizing local norms but I think that is an argument or some other thread. In the grand scheme of things I really am not one to judge considering that i once drove the wrong direction in a roundabout in Bermuda on a moped. I chalk it up to natural conditioning. :) 

The question I am curious about is whether "stay to the right" is grounded in any scientific reason? it would seem that the more common approach when dealing with traffic theory is to stay to the left. I also wonder how did some countries end up on the right and others on the left? Is one side better than the other? I would theorize that more people are right handed and it would make more sense to be on the right side of the road or walking path but I have no idea if that is based on scientific reasoning. Can someone please explain this to me? 

 

I don't know--it makes sense to me, and annoys me when it isn't followed. I also hate when people come in the left door instead of the right (as I'm about to run into them). It just seems natural to stay on the right--at least in the U.S.

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Hmm, I hadn't thought about doors having rules either, but yeah. As an American, entering or exiting with the right seems natural and confusion ensues when two people head for the same door. I think I don't pay much attention unless I see someone heading the opposite way through glass and then I veer right.

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On ‎4‎/‎20‎/‎2017 at 2:07 AM, Simon Steele said:

I don't know--it makes sense to me, and annoys me when it isn't followed. I also hate when people come in the left door instead of the right (as I'm about to run into them). It just seems natural to stay on the right--at least in the U.S.

I agree, never thought about it before though but it's why I always get mixed up at Walmart. At least all the Walmarts I'm familiar with, the sliding doors on the left open for people coming in and the ones on the right are for people coming out. I'm always trying to come in on the right, usually able to because there's always someone coming out, but then I'm going against the flow of people. I think it's set up this way because all the shopping carts are stored in the left side of the big foyer area, but it still messes me up most times.

Once I'm inside the Walmart though it seems natural to walk down the aisles and lanes on the right and come back up on the left, and most people do the same and it has been a mild irritant to me whenever encountering people going against that flow.

At my parents' restaurant we had swinging doors into the kitchen but they were made so the right door only swung in and the left door only swung out. However, the office was right next to the "out" door, when people stood right outside the office, accidents happened.

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3 hours ago, drawkcabi said:

I agree, never thought about it before though but it's why I always get mixed up at Walmart. At least all the Walmarts I'm familiar with, the sliding doors on the left open for people coming in and the ones on the right are for people coming out. I'm always trying to come in on the right, usually able to because there's always someone coming out, but then I'm going against the flow of people. I think it's set up this way because all the shopping carts are stored in the left side of the big foyer area, but it still messes me up most times.

Once I'm inside the Walmart though it seems natural to walk down the aisles and lanes on the right and come back up on the left, and most people do the same and it has been a mild irritant to me whenever encountering people going against that flow.

At my parents' restaurant we had swinging doors into the kitchen but they were made so the right door only swung in and the left door only swung out. However, the office was right next to the "out" door, when people stood right outside the office, accidents happened.

 

Ha! Walmart and their friggin' doors! I've noticed this too, and then, recently, one of our Walmarts fixed that. I was shocked. And confused. I didn't know where to go.

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25 minutes ago, Swordfish said:

I have to confess, i have an extremely irrational fear of revolving doors.  Almost to the point of paralysis.

So I'm that guy who misses that available section, because I'm usually steeling myself for the entry.

Did you watch the godfather too many times?

 

There's a small revolving door in a pub I go to, it only goes one way, and you can only fit one person in each segment, people seem to have real trouble with it.

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1 hour ago, BigFatCoward said:

Twats that get in revolrevolving doors but don't push should be burned at the stake.

The revolving door at work is automatic. If you try and push it faster than its standard speed it stops.

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2 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

Twats that get in revolrevolving doors but don't push should be burned at the stake. Same for people that miss the obvious correct section and delay while they get the next one. Wank bags. 

Thats like saying people who don't speed over speed bumps are twats. The whole point of revolving doors is to slow you down.  Having said that, i do sometimes dart in when people ahead of me are hesitating and usually feel very smug about it.

56 minutes ago, Maltaran said:

The revolving door at work is automatic. If you try and push it faster than its standard speed it stops.

Yeah, thats the irritation i'm more familiar with - people that push on, or sometimes just touch, the door, often multiple times while looking bewildered that it keeps mysteriously stopping.

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Regarding driving on the left/right, a Brit Youtber I've watched and communicated for years with, LindyBeige, had a great video a while back on the subject from his always very...British...position.  Some good info IMO, and entertaining as always.

 

 

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The local hospital here has a revolving door, I don't get it. Yeah it's extra big so people in wheelchairs can use it, more than one person can come in in one section. But...why? It is electric so it continually revolves, no need to push it to go through and there's a button on either side that someone can push to slow it down, someone not the person going through obviously because they're on the outside of the door. More than once when I've gone there I've had to hold the button for people coming in, once I've had to hold onto the door to manually stop it as a woman very timid of it was going through. Of course there are sliding doors too, but they aren't that obvious where the revolving door is which is at a main entrance, many people come to the hospital having little to no stamina, searching for a different door causes wasting time, and more stress physically and mentally. A lousy design, maybe nice esthetically but form doesn't follow function there.

 

18 hours ago, Swordfish said:

Is that even possible?

Nope.

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9 hours ago, Loge said:

Revolving doors have a function. They keep heat from leaking out in the winter or from coming into an air conditioned building in the summer. 

Learn something new everyday.

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I interview a lot of people at my job. We make everyone check in at our HQ building and we usually have to walk them to another building. It is a pretty common occurrence for a candidate to hop into the revolving door section with me when leaving the HQ building. It is only set up for one person to comfortably go through and it makes for an awkward situation. It is actually amazing how often that happens. 

Back to walking patterns - spent an afternoon at Disney on Friday. Oh. My. God. The incorrect walking patterns were off the chart. They really need to paint some lines on the ground there. Never seen so many people completely unaware of their surroundings. I almost had a panic attack. 

 

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