Who Gives A Shit: Do the sidewalks have lanes?
Effed in Park Slope | Monday, March 4, 2013 at 12:00PM 
via timeout.comWe received the following message from a FiPS reader:
On a recent afternoon, my son and I were walking up Third Street with our bulldog. The street was pretty empty. At the corner, we turned left onto 8th avenue and our dog stopped to sniff the gate that hugs the corner. Approaching us was a woman, mid-50s, long puffy coat, small, wool hat on her grey-streaked hair. She stopped short in front of us. She was about to turn onto 3rd street and wanted to hug the inside "lane" but she couldn't because we were in the way. I tried to pull the dog away from the spot she was intensely sniffing but she wouldn't budge. The woman said, "I'm turning here." It took a second for me to realize that she wouldn't take two steps to the left and walk around us. I said, "You've got to be kidding." She responded with a gesture used only by traffic cops, full arm pointing right. I said, "My dog isn't finished reading her email, you'll have to wait." She let out a loud, impatient breath and went around us.
So, dear readers, have you encountered a similar situation? Are we always required to walk on the right-hand side of the sidewalk? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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Reader Comments (7)
Yes! Every morning my fiance and I walk from 2nd street along 8th avenue to the F stop at 9th street. It is a disaster. We have learned there is a hierarchy in park slope walking the sidewalks.
In order from least important to most (by important I mean most likely to be douc&ey and not be courteous and half move)
1. A young single person
2. An older single person
2. A couple
3. An older couple
4. A couple with a kid
5. A couple with multiple kids
6. And the grand daddy of them all --> when multiple families with multiple kids pair up to talk its like you need to get airlifted over them or walk in the street to go around.!!!
No, not required to. But it was once customary. A lot of lifelong city people kind of insist on it. In their view it's the only thing that keeps the traffic moving. Rules of the road for cars probably developed out of what was customary pedestrian behavior (keep to the right, pass on the left, etc.). Around 1980 the great urbanist William H. Whyte wrote that people who walk on the left are as likely as not to be sociopaths. But I think these customs have really broken down in the last 20 years.
I think the mid-50's woman in this particular anecdote was needlessly huffy about it but I'm sorry, people with dogs and kids tend to get hoggy on the sidewalk. I've crashed into many kids and almost tipped over several leashes on 7th Ave, especially where it gets skinny on the north end. It's definitely a first world problem so again, no need to lose your shit over it but I can't seem to walk 3 blocks without running into what seems like endemic dis-courteousness.
1. Sidewalks totally have lanes.
2. Regardless, mid-50s puffy coat lady is still a crazy person.
Oh, you didn't get the memo? Left is the new right!
Everything on the sidewalk or any vertical surface up to 18 inches is reserved for dog waste.
I have a child, people must move out of our way, wherever we choose to walk. We always have the right of way. We will require the whole sidewalk of the block that we're on, as well as any in which we might plan on walking down.
I have zero control of my children and or pets. Scruffy is the boss! I need to let the staff of Starbucks babysit my child. How do I find the time?!