I usually like to get out early, or skip weekends all together as often they are more busy, and its also a different vibe. If you go very early in the morning on a weekend, you generally get the more hard core set, the spandex cyclists, the fast 20 somethings passing you, and you get a lot of quiet in between. On a weekday, you'll encounter the dog walkers, the older set, and many, many hellos. I often judge a place by the reception you get on the local walking path. You may recall my comparison between the Polish and the Spanish on this scale? Well, the UK weekday path people are quite friendly. Most say hello or good morning, and at the very least the nod-and-smile (or grimace) is de rigueur.
 |
| Canal path |
On the weekend, it is quite different; there are no hellos and very little nodding and smiling. It did not help that I had a call with a friend that went longer than expected, so I did not get out to the path until after 9 am. This is like going to brunch on the weekend; its not really my cup of tea (see what I did there), as its often crowded, or there are lines, and everything takes longer. Despite having all the time in the world, I still do not want to waste it. However, on the path, there are no lines, but the weekend people were out in full force. The dog walkers, the baby strollers, the fishermen, the large groups of friends and families, the slow runners, the fast runners, the hungover teenagers, the cyclists and the Sunday Saturday strolling folks were all there. This brings a different dynamic to the path, as in the fact that each of these groups has a different level of awareness of those around them, and each of the groups has different ways of doing things, or different rules.
For example, the fishermen and some of the hungover teenagers were smoking. While it is a free world and smokers can smoke outside legally, it is quite a shock when you are running past and you get a lungful of smoke. There were two influencers young ladies wearing bra tops and booty shorts and at least a gallon of perfume which were not much better. There was a group of about a dozen young lads who appeared to have just left the club and decided to stroll along the canal path for some reason, but were not really interested in getting out of the way of all the other dozens and dozens of people passing them.
The thing that really surprised and confuddled me is the fact there are seemingly no rules about which side of the path to stay on. In my mind, if you drive on the right, you walk or ride on the right and pass on the left, and if you drive on the left you walk or ride on the left, and pass on the right. People were walking willy-nilly though. Some were on the right, some on the left, and some of the bigger groups took up the entire path despite it being quite busy, so a run down the path involved a lot of games of chicken (I was running on the left) and much weaving around the slower and/or other sided people. It concerned me so much that I was doing it wrong that I looked it up and apparently there is no rule; people can choose to go on whatever side they want. Being in a place where the residents are poked fun at for their love of queueing (btw, this is one word with five vowels in a row), I am shocked that they don't have a rule for this.
This is also true in other places in the UK, like the airport or train station, where the escalator is sometimes on the left and sometimes on the right. I even saw it on the stairs at the train station, where the directions are clearly marked (walking on the left) and people just go wherever they want, even when its quite busy. Maybe this is extra noticeable to me because my last foreign forays were in Japan and Taiwan where there are lots of rules. I am not saying that people on a sidewalk in these countries are marching along on one side uniformly, but generally on the bike or walking path, people stick to one side, and in the train stations there are often line drawings on the ground showing where to walk or to stand.
 |
| Please keep left |
Lest ye think I am complaining, I assure you that am not. I find it interesting to see how people interact or act around the world, and I really enjoy seeing how different people in different places do things. I like being curious and observing and asking questions, although I have yet to pull over a dog walker to ask them why the heck they are walking on the right side of the path! There's still time though...
What do you think about when you are walking, hiking or running? Do people say good morning to you when you are out walking? Do people stick to one side of the walking paths in the area where you are?
