Sidewalk Etiquette Because It Is Dying And Needs To Be Said

Here's the skinny y'all, walking on the sidewalk is great for you. It helps you be active and feel like you're really going places. It gives you the opportunity to maybe meet a cool or cute stranger somewhere just because you walked past them or maybe even bumped into them. And all of that is fine and dandy, but walking on the sidewalk has become extremely tedious and annoying for me. Why? you ask. Well, because people don't know how to do it anymore.

I once lived in an area where if you were walking on the same sidewalk as another person, they would keep to their right and you would keep to yours and there would be no issue, however, people have somehow misplaced this knowledge. They have replaced it with the ridiculous notion that the sidewalk is solely for them to use and that if someone else is walking the opposite direction there is no reason to shift to the right so they can pass without issue. No. That would be too much. Instead, they must move or run into ME because I am more important.

Here's the deal, yo. The sidewalk should be thought of as the street that you drive on in a car. You must keep to the right (or whatever your typical traffic side is) and maintain a division down the middle so that you DON'T run into someone walking the other way. It is an epidemic that is taking the world by storm and it shouldn't be. It should be a non-issue. It should have itself figured out because everyone knows that they don't drive on the wrong side of the road, so why the hell would you walk on the wrong side of the sidewalk?

Do not walk with your 4 friends in one big line that spans the entire sidewalk because, sorry not sorry, I will push through you. I have no intention of changing where I am walking when I am always on the right side of the sidewalk.

Do not stand in the middle of the sidewalk. No one wants you to take up their precious walking space. Please, go find a park or a table or a garden or something ELSE to sit in. Thank you.

Do not walk straight at someone on the completely wrong side of the sidewalk and assume they will move for you. I can't tell you how many times people have run into me doing this. I keep to the right, as should you.

Do not act like you don't do this. You probably do. And if you do, please fix it. If you actually don't and you feel the same way as me, well, you're not alone.

Figure out how to walk on the sidewalk. Please. It is a place to make it easier to go places and that can't happen if you are using it incorrectly.

Also, PDA on a sidewalk is not something us pedestrians want to see. Please, go somewhere private-ish at least.

One more thing before I end this, pedestrians may "have the right of way" when it comes to crossing streets and stuff, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't look before you do. Please, please, please look before you cross anything. Cars don't always stop and it is a lot easier to stop a person than it is to stop a car.

Thank you. Now, go use this and fix your pedestrian habits.