As the Car Drives

I don't think that I am a demanding person. I understand that I am forced to share this world with other people, some of which are not nearly as considerate as I am. I don't mind that these people exist and take up the precious resources I would like to use for myself.

What I can't understand is how people in the UK seem innately unable to share a sidewalk. Of course, this is a broad generalization, and there are going to be people that fall outside said broad generality. More often than not, though, I find myself forced into the street because four or five people want to walk shoulder to shoulder across the width of the sidewalk.

This seems to be endemic in British citizens, and especially true around the beginning of the year when whole flat-loads of Freshers make their way to and from class. It still early enough where these students haven't figured out who they really want to spend their time with, so they cluster in large mobs to go anywhere. In an attempt to figure out who likes what and who will make a good travelling companion later in the year, these students will engage in conversations. Makes sense, sure. I have also talked when I walk places.

What I don't understand is why these conversation supersede my desire to be on the sidewalk. The sidewalks in Aberystwyth are not that wide, and the streets are equally narrow. At times, the buses and trucks (read: lorries, British) will have to go up over the curb to make a turn. The gristly death that comes with being run down and dragged off by a bus seems to be worse than briefly stopping what you are saying for a moment to let one person pass by.

The second problem is that there are no social conventions in the UK for passing people (which might lead to the above problem). Because America is very much a car culture, pedestrians tend to mirror these things. I took a friend of mine from here over to Seattle, Portland and LA, and when we were walking, I often had to pull her over to the right so that people could pass. It just made sense to me: what works for the cars should also work on the sidewalks. Some more traveled pedestrian paths will even paint the street lines on so that walkers, runners and bicyclists will know to stay to the right.

Driving is not as ingrained in the DNA of the average British person. In fact, of all my friends here, only two have cars. Most people just walk everywhere, or if it's too far away, take a bus or train. My friend Jamie, in his mid-twenties, doesn't even have a drivers license. An American over 20 without a drivers license is assumed to be epileptic, or have some other condition that does not allow him or her to drive. It is more important, in the suburban sprawl and emptiness of rural America, to own a car just to get to places. The sheer size of America doesn't really allow for a nationalized public transportation system. I've lived in a small town (DeSoto, IL: pop. 350), and I would question why I bus would stop there. Plus, where could a bus go from DeSoto that would make sense? There are just too many smaller places that people would go to that there wouldn't really need to be a bus. It had a hard enough time keeping the schools open; paying for a bus service would seem almost criminal.

Still, there is something to be said for ingraining a sense of the "right" side of things so that people have social conventions to rely on. I've lived in some crowded places, often taking trains into the city during rush hours, and had these social conventions not extended from the street to the sidewalk, no one would ever be able to make it anywhere. If I had to step into the streets of Chicago to go around a group of four people standing shoulder to shoulder, I would surely be run down by a taxi.

I might be making too much out of a little annoyance. That is a distinct possibility, and I have been known to make a lot out of people's inability to follow what I feel is an establish social convention. But I don't think it's too much to ask for someone to get out of the way when I am walking up the hill. And if not out of my way, then make a way for me to go through. If this trend continues, I am going to pick up a reputation as the American who scowls at everyone walking up the hill, and plows into groups hogging the sidewalk, forcing them to either bump into me or get run down like so many squirrels on the back roads of America.