Why do people walk on the left side of the aisle

[Meximagician]

Here in the US, school children are usually taught to walk on the right side of hallways and such. But around high school, I noticed that drilled in reflex starts getting ignored, and hallways became more of a mess.

About walking along a street, always walk along traffic. Because an idiot turning right in a country that drives on the right will tend to look left* (at oncoming traffic) rather than both ways to check for pedestrians. Take it from someone who was the pedestrian in that situation once, and thank video games for honing my reflexes enough to jump on the hood instead of getting pulled under. I am become hood ornament, accessorizor of cars.

[small]* invert left/right where needed[/small]

 

[DeliveryGodNoah_v1legacy]

I'm not here to determine a specific psychological or instinctual reason for this, but I do have the opinion that if there's pretty obvious traffic flow of people walking in two lanes (One lane on their right going one direction, while the other lane on their right going the other direction) it's astoundingly rude, inconsiderate, and downright moronic to try and go against an obvious flow of people.

Especially in places such as stores, conventions, schools, or just places where there are a lot of people constantly moving, there needs to be some kind of collective order, whether it's explicitly stated or not. Otherwise you'll just end up with crowds of people attempting to weave in and out of each other pointlessly, when we could all just be aware of our fucking surroundings for two seconds, and find a way for us all to go one way smoothly.

Now in cases such as where there are hardly any people at all, it's more reasonable to perhaps walk just about wherever you please, barring that you're not getting in people's way.

 

[Joccaren]

Yeah, in Australia, there's no rule as such, but people tend to walk more on the left, presumably since people drive on the left here.

Yeah, I was going to say, what, who walks on the right?
The exception being escalators where its more customary to just stand on the left, and be on the right to keep moving forward - matching the "Right to overtake" driving thing, but even then left escalator is usually forward, and right is backward, relative to your own direction.

 

[gsilver]

The entire grocery store experience is constantly dodging the slow people who barely seem to even move. Naturally, that involves using both the left and right-hand sides of the aisle.


But seriously, when I'm shopping for cereal (for example) nearly all of what I'm looking for is going to be on one side of the aisle, so naturally, I'll stick to the other side where I can see more of it at once.

 

[Ten Foot Bunny]

I have a tendency to veer to my left even though I live in the US, which results in more than a few awkward dances. Not sure if it has anything to do with being left-handed (and VERY left-dominant) but going to the right always feels strange.

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

Because Americans are objectively wrong about driving on the right! It is in our deepest nature default to the left...you cannot deny your true nature, suppressing it is unhealthy. This is your subconscious telling you what the true way is. Give innn...how long do you honestly think you can fight nature? Do not be afraid, sweet child. It will be a painless transition. Come hither, Join us on the left...we have cookies and ice-cream...

Yet Austria and Germany, two of the earliest places, and the place where automobiles were actually invented in the former's case, drive on the right. Where as a few places influenced by a crazy and small island nation with delusions of grandeur during it's colonial era(Britain) are the ones that drive on the left.

Anyways OT: For pedestrian traffic, people tend to walk on the outside if they're walking in the opposite direction the near line of road traffic is going. People walking with that traffic tend to walk on the far side from the road. This is because it's important to be aware of road traffic, you're more likely to get hit if you're nearer the traffic, so you'll wanting to face the on coming traffic if someone swerves.

Yeah, in Australia, there's no rule as such, but people tend to walk more on the left, presumably since people drive on the left here.

Yeah, I was going to say, what, who walks on the right?
The exception being escalators where its more customary to just stand on the left, and be on the right to keep moving forward - matching the "Right to overtake" driving thing, but even then left escalator is usually forward, and right is backward, relative to your own direction.

This is something extremely dominate in the US, specifically on the US freeway system, our limited access high speed roads, like interstates and portions of major highways. Slower traffic is set to the right hand lane for several reasons, most notably because freeway entrances and exits are always on the right side. Having the slower traffic on the right is safer for drivers who are both looking to exit, or enter the freeway, as a driver won't have to contend with traffic that's potentially speeding. Passing on the left is thus ideal as the higher speed lanes are on the left, where passing on the right is often times not only bad manners, but usually illegal. Though if the person you're passing when you're on the left is going slower than the speed limit, they're the ones at fault, not you.

At anyrate. I tend to notice here in the US that in more narrow isles people tend to treat the isle of a grocery store or other public venue as a surface street. So people tend to stick to the right hand side of the isle, unless enough people are getting things on the left, in which case until the isle empties out, everyone moves to their left. Wider isles tend to get treated as major highways with multiple lanes of travel, thus people will stay to their right, turning around to get to the other side if they need to go back. Where as people just passing down the main isle will default to the center lanes and pass slower traffic on their own right.

Although Isles in US stores of any kind tend to built to have the things you're going to go for first on the right hand side of the isle from the direction entering of a central isle. Like in liquor isle, turning in from a central isle puts beer on the right, booze and wine on the left. Considering that beer sells better and comes in heavy cases, this sort of layout in convenient. Also more expensive beer tends to be further away from the central isle, as most people go for the inexpensive domestics... Just an example

In my personal experience though there are two kinds of people. Those who drive tend to favor the right hand side as their travel lane, those who take the bus, or walk most places favor the left. Which invariably leads to chaos on a busy day.

 

[wulf3n]

Well as an Australian it's more common to walk on the left hand side.

That being said as someone who's right hand dominant I prefer a wall/inanimate object to my left when I'm walking.

 

[Denamic]

Yeah, in Australia, there's no rule as such, but people tend to walk more on the left, presumably since people drive on the left here.

It's the other way around here. People walk on the left because cars drive on the right. It's safer to face cars driving on your side than having them come from behind.

 

[Nazulu]

Yeah, in Australia, there's no rule as such, but people tend to walk more on the left, presumably since people drive on the left here.

Seconding this.

I too assume it's just a habit from driving on the left.

Thirding This.

I assume too it's a habit just driving from on the left ;-)

 

[magnetite2]

I always try to walk on the right side, because that's how everyone drives. Sometimes, there's one or two or even three people who walk on the left and I have to get out of their way. Only to walk into another person who's trying to walk on the right, who then gets mad. The other way is to walk to the far right, which would put me outside of the painted white lines in the sidewalk, which might end up in a jaywalking ticket.

Happens a lot in sidewalks I've noticed. People don't tend to stick to the right side.

 

[happyninja42]

Reasons why this might happen:

1. In a grocery store (an example you gave), the item they are looking for is on their left, your right, of the aisle you both happen to be in.

2. You are in a country where the left side is the predominantly agreed upon side to walk.

3. They have a buggy that has a fucked up wheel that keeps dragging to the left, and they've just stopped fighting it so much.

4. They have a subconscious urge to engage in grocery cart crash derby, and are preparing to charge into you and scatter your things everywhere.

5. They know someone on the internet is going to post about this, and they get some perverse level of pleasure knowing they've befuddled someone on social media.

6. They don't really care about any concept of "agreed side" to walk on, seeing as their is no actual law forcing them to do so, and they can walk wherever they want, however they want.

 

[Einspanner]

Maybe only they can see the tall dark man standing on the right side. Only they see the blood and the terror, and only they know that whosoever treads upon that way, has departed from this life. Wither they have gone none can say, and none care to learn who wishes to retain their wits and semblance of humanity.

 

[Joccaren]

Yet Austria and Germany, two of the earliest places, and the place where automobiles were actually invented in the former's case, drive on the right. Where as a few places influenced by a crazy and small island nation with delusions of grandeur during it's colonial era(Britain) are the ones that drive on the left.

Early prototyping, which they never moved past, and America - similar to their Imperial measurement system - never got past either. Obviously the later developed, superior left side setup is the way to go.

Anyways OT: For pedestrian traffic, people tend to walk on the outside if they're walking in the opposite direction the near line of road traffic is going. People walking with that traffic tend to walk on the far side from the road. This is because it's important to be aware of road traffic, you're more likely to get hit if you're nearer the traffic, so you'll wanting to face the on coming traffic if someone swerves.

Pretty accurate, and a good general rule when in any country.

This is something extremely dominate in the US, specifically on the US freeway system, our limited access high speed roads, like interstates and portions of major highways. Slower traffic is set to the right hand lane for several reasons, most notably because freeway entrances and exits are always on the right side. Having the slower traffic on the right is safer for drivers who are both looking to exit, or enter the freeway, as a driver won't have to contend with traffic that's potentially speeding. Passing on the left is thus ideal as the higher speed lanes are on the left, where passing on the right is often times not only bad manners, but usually illegal. Though if the person you're passing when you're on the left is going slower than the speed limit, they're the ones at fault, not you.

At anyrate. I tend to notice here in the US that in more narrow isles people tend to treat the isle of a grocery store or other public venue as a surface street. So people tend to stick to the right hand side of the isle, unless enough people are getting things on the left, in which case until the isle empties out, everyone moves to their left. Wider isles tend to get treated as major highways with multiple lanes of travel, thus people will stay to their right, turning around to get to the other side if they need to go back. Where as people just passing down the main isle will default to the center lanes and pass slower traffic on their own right.

Although Isles in US stores of any kind tend to built to have the things you're going to go for first on the right hand side of the isle from the direction entering of a central isle. Like in liquor isle, turning in from a central isle puts beer on the right, booze and wine on the left. Considering that beer sells better and comes in heavy cases, this sort of layout in convenient. Also more expensive beer tends to be further away from the central isle, as most people go for the inexpensive domestics... Just an example

In my personal experience though there are two kinds of people. Those who drive tend to favor the right hand side as their travel lane, those who take the bus, or walk most places favor the left. Which invariably leads to chaos on a busy day.

Yeah, down here driving on the left means all exits/entrances are on the left, and the right is across the opposing traffic if you want to turn, so left takes dominance here. Never really had the problem of people walking down on the right. More crowds of people, usually of a certain type that I won't mention for the sake of not stereotyping, walk 5-6 abreast in a 6 person wide street, blocking all walking traffic and forcing utter chaos on the walkways. It is always my great joy to simply bust through the middle of them as they are being plainly inconsiderate. And this isn't when there's only one or two people on the walkway other than them, they can hold up thousands of people at a time because forming a 2 rows of 3 people is too much effort for them.
That and all the construction that pulls any street that isn't blocked by them down to a 1 person wide lane, which just causes all the more issues. Or escalators where it forces a cross over of people's 'traffic lines' as such in 4 escalator systems so you have streams of hundreds of people colliding, heading in opposite directions, because whoever designed the direction for escalators that day obviously hasn't studied the pedestrian traffic in the area.
People here know how to walk, there's a bunch of stupidity around it regardless. Funnily enough shopping centres are the main place it isn't too bad, just got to deal with a handful of people standing in the middle of the aisle looking at products, who often move out of the way as you approach to let you through.

There is honestly some sense in just marking out lanes for travel in many areas I reckon. Its too bad no-one would actually follow them, 'coz it would solve a lot of problems moving around the city during peak periods.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Basically the unspoken rule of non-regulated foot traffic here is thus: slow, pick a side. Moving through gets the other.

If both sides are being slow, you're within your right to say something or even push through gently.