There was a photo in the November 2013 line-up by Satguru of a London Street that seemed to show all the pedestrians using the opposite passing convention that is used on the streets, iow, the walkers were keeping to the right and the drivers were keeping to the left. I asked if that was a mere coincidence of that photo or were the conventions actually reversed? I mentioned staircase habits and found there are posted safety guides on escalators telling standers to stay to the right and let the treaders come up from behind them on their left side (the manner of driving in the USA, keep to the right and let faster cars pass on the left).

I didn't want to hijack that thread (and possibly lose an interesting topic in the middle of a photo thread, never to be searchable) so I came here.

I ask that as many as care to to chime in with encounters in passing or to volunteer the conventions in their part of the world and in the different venues: street, sidewalk, stairs, escalators, elevators/lifts, the turns in shopping aisle ends and so on. Is it keep to the right, the left or catch as catch can?

I ride my bike slowly on the sidewalks here in So. Florida. Most of the walkers coming towards me want to go to my right. as a former driver, that's the side I want to take. When I mention "Keep to the right" most reply in a Caribbean accent, "Sorry!" At least they're polite in nearly sending us all to the ground. Back up North there is never a question of which passant to take.

What are your experiences where you are?

In Britain there are no real conventions for pedestrians on pavements (sidewalks). In past times, when streets were generally unpaved, men were expected to walk on the outside of women (nearer the traffic, so that women would not be spattered with mud from vehicles): this habit persisted into the twentieth century even after our streets were properly paved, but I doubt whether it is observed today.

On the London underground, signs on escalators tell us to stand on the right, so that anyone in a hurry can walk up or down on the left: unlike the USA, this is the opposite our driving habits.

Here in Canada, so far as I have noticed, we use the same convention as our driving habits - if pedestrians are headed on a collision course, both go to the right to avoid each other. It's not universal, though - it's not uncommon for there to be a little dance as both step in one direction, then both correct and step in the other, and finally one just stops and waves the other past.

Whenever I am out walking with a female I always ensure that I walk on the outside. Not because of mud splatters; I was brought up to believe that should a vehicle leave the road for any reason then it was the man's duty to cop it first! (And I'm a little bit old-fashioned in many respects!)

I never noticed anyone in England walking on a specific side. If someone one bumped into you , you said sorry (that's where they learnt it from in Canada.)
I certainly never heard of people riding bikes on the pavement. Don't you have cycle paths?
Here the Chinese people keep on walking , walk across your path, let doors slam in your face, rush onto trains first and stop dead in the middle of the pavement when the phone rings. I just keep walking because I am old, I am a woman and I am not beating them I am joining them. Going out is quite an adventure.

In Britain we drive on the left, row boats on the right, and cross roads where we darn well please.

Which is why a professor of my acquaintance got busted for jaywalking whilst attending a conference. He was also breathalysed, as the American police refused to believe that anyone would walk from choice.
He returned to Oxford, determined to burn his passport.
Ren, bikes on pavements are a growing problem. Illegal but often encountered.

More often than not people keep to the right.


Around here there are a few bicycle paths/lanes, but usually not. It doesn't stop people from bicycling in the street where there are none though.

My pet hate is shared cycle-paths / pedestrian-paths; it's very stressful to travel on them, and I would ban them altogether if I could. I'd rather have a normal pavement with illegal cycling, at least that way everyone knows where they stand.

In most place here it is illegal to cycle on pavements, I can only think of one area where it is specifically encouraged but that it only on the uphill section, it is steep, winding and a major road even if only one lane in each direction. It leads to the airport and trying to pass a cyclist would be a nightmare so they are told to use the pavement.

My bike riding (which seems to anger some of you) is done not in an urban setting with many walkers. I travel two miles a day on the sidewalk which parallels a 4 lane (edit: ea way 8 total/divided), fully utilized roadway, once against the traffic direction and once with it. There is no bike path on the road side because that area is designed for road drainage and therefore has extremely large drain holes every 100 feet where the bike path would be. In my travel I might encounter a single walker each ride. I have a fluggle horn to warn those I'm approaching of my coming from behind. I try to be as sensitive to sharing the public accommodation as I can. It is illegal to transit on the roads if one is not a visually capable, licensed driver with insurance.
If I was in an urban setting I would not ride where I might encounter dozens of walkers. I would either walk my bike or take to a bike path if it was available. In my pedaling years I have even had the occasion to portage my bike on my shoulder where there were no suitable paths at all for a two wheeled contrivance such as stairways and unpaved, dirt covered ground. My bike is a ten-speed racer, not a mountain bike so the tires require a paved surface. Our sidewalks corners at intersections have ramped cuts through the sidewalk berm to allow wheeled conveyances like bikes and motorized chairs to safely make the grade change from sidewalk to street level. They are designed to be accessed by bikes so why would bikes be out of place there?
There are many bike riding gangs (for lack of a better term) that ride tours on weekends. Through the years the Florida Highway department has investigated the issues involved for those crowds and have developed a system of signage on those popular routes to notify cyclists when they can or mustn't ride on the road. Generally, if there is a sidewalk, no street riding is allowed. I dread the "Bike Path Ends" signs because I need to split my vision and attention between the traffic and the search for a safe sidewalk transition. I don't think some of you speak from biking experience but from your impressions garnered while driving cars, so, I forgive your errant assumptions.

Different countries, different road conditions, different laws. In this island most roads are scarcely wide enough for one lane of traffic in each direction and indeed to overtake a cyclist when there is no oncoming traffic is still difficult. Many of our roads cannot have traffic in both directions, they are too narrow and one vehicle would need to pull in to a passing space or back up.

Beautifully put flopsy.

I'm afraid cyclists on pavements are one of my pet hates. Pavements for pedestrians, roads for things with wheels. It annoys me even more where I live as we have only a short stretch of pavement (being a rural area) which just runs past the inhabited bit of the road. Cyclists zoom up and down it, I've actually had them come up behind me when I'm dog walking and ring their bell at me for me to get out the way. They say the road is too busy and dangerous for them to cycle in - well don't cycle then! Cycling on pavements is allegedly illegal but I've never seen anyone stopped for it - I have however seen people knocked over in our High St. by youths on cycles who are more than capable of riding in the road.

I don't know what it's like now but in my generation almost every British child knew how to ride a bike and most of us rode bikes to school, as a hobby, and to run errands. I bought (yes, with my own money) my first bike when I was three - a two-wheeler, none of this namby-pamby stabiliser nonsense - and was taught to ride it by a Royal Marine. Then my sailor brother got home from the Korean War and mortified by the fact a Marine had taught his baby sister to ride he promptly taught me how to 'fall' off it - a skill which later on saved my life.

I don't imagine that any Brit would be angry at anyone for riding a bike, we certainly know how to ride the things - why else do you think we turned out in such large numbers to watch the Olympic road races? Or were so overjoyed about what happened in the Velodrome? Or have been thrilled by two successive British winners of the Tour de France? Cycling is a passion here - but our pavements were not meant for bikes, riding on them is illegal in most cases, but there just aren't enough dedicated cycle paths which, combined with too much traffic, means that cyclists and pedestrians often conflict.

Sue, I don't see how pedestrians would be any differently imposing on drivers' rights in your depiction than do cyclists.

But this is a thread about passing on left/right. Does someone want to open a biking pet hates thread?

I was merely stating the difference in road conditions, you say you have 8 lanes of traffic on a road, I am saying that in many places there is just one here. Most of our roads don't have pavements so the cycling on them isn't an issue, mostly pedestrians have to walk in the road. Where we have pavements, barring one, it is illegal to cycle on them.

You couldn't build an 8-lane highway on Jersey - it would cover the whole island!

Your are not wrong.

Nailed it 100%! Along with the little dance is a lot of "sorry"s

One of my favourite 'life observances' type things I've read was along the lines of "When I'm a pedestrian, drivers annoy me, and when I'm a driver, pedestrians annoy me. But no matter my method of transportation, I hate cyclists!" I don't hate the actual person, mind you, there's just no good place to put them while on their bikes! Even in areas here where there are actual bike lines just for cyclists, it still manages to be annoying a lot of the time, but it's better than being the car stuck behind a bicycle in a zone where the speed limit is 80 and the cyclist can't go anywhere near that fast.

Our check out counters/registers in all our stores are keep to the right (encumbering us right handers loading merchandise onto the conveyor).

Ours are on both sides, the registers are in pairs, one with a right hand unload, one with a left hand unload. Does mean you have to be careful about keeping strictly to your side to avoid collisions on the very rare times that all check outs are open.

Here in Texas, a lot of cities have designated the city streets as bike routes, and also per our state law, a bicycle is considered a vehicle, which means it may do anything that a regular automobile can as well. Plano goes a step further by numbering their bike routes as per the US Interstate system, where the southern and western ends of the city have low numbers, and the northern and eastern ends are much higher. Mapleshade Ln. is designated as Bike Route 2, and Ridgeview Dr. is Bike Route 90. The lowest numbered odd bike route is #5, and the highest is #97, which mainly encompasses Los Rios Dr., on the east edge of the city. Route 5 goes through a neighborhood, and I cannot recall all of the streets it encompasses.

What is the passing conventions on those bike paths? Are rules posted or do people out of habit follow the rules of the road and keep to the right?

In Texas, all vehicles follow the rules of the road. Whether you be on a motorcycle, in a car, or on a bike, has no bearing on the roadway.

This has been a quite amusing thread to read. Mostly because here we think of "pavement" as the road surface that cars drive on, but I suspect other people are referring to what we would call "sidewalks" or perhaps cement lol.

Yes we drive on the right. Some cities have dedicated bicycle lanes (but not in all areas of the same city) and some don't. Some have half-youknowwhat lanes which are too wide for a bicycle and not wide enough for a car and nobody knows what the heg the painted symbols really mean. Sometimes it's hard to know (for either the cyclist or the vehicular driver) what they're supposed to do.

When I was little, I was told that if I couldn't keep up with the EXPECTED/posted speed of the traffic on a given road, then I should be riding my bike on the sidewalk instead. To me this makes sense and quite frankly no pedestrians ever died by adhering to that policy lol. So I guess I'm with dgdave on this one, although I'm sure there are 20 overprotective mothers in my neighbourhood who would disagree with me LOL!