Walking - the various social tendencies

Usually when you walk on the sidewalk or a narrow pathway, you will pick a side to walk on. However, other people (from experience) always tend to conflict with your choice, and you conflict with theirs apparently. The unwritten social norms are very muddled here as people seem to walk wherever they like.


Right Side Walkers: I always walk on the right side, since I thought that was what everyone tends to do. You're close to the "inside" when you are walking on the right side of a street, which trades off with being closer to the road if you are walking on the left side of a street.

Left Side Walkers: Many people seem to like walking on the left, which forces you to walk to the left. Most obviously, the tradeoffs are reversed here.

Adjusters: Maybe you don't see yourself as a chooser, and you adjust according to whichever side the incoming person is walking on. Path of least resistance...that is until two adjusters meet...

ZigZaggers: These people can't seem to make up their mind. They usually come from the horizon and will try to shift slowly to avoid your walking line. Problematically, they shift so slowly that you can't tell which side they will pick (if not the middle) and you have to consciously shift yourself appropriately until you can safely cross each other. The worst case scenario: both parties walk directly into each other and attempt to shift left or right simultaneously clashing, leading to an awkward left-right-left-right chain which ends when one person is polite or stops moving.

Median Strips: People that choose to walk in the middle of the walkway, which makes it disadvantageous for everybody, regardless of intended direction. These people definitely get dirty looks, but maybe not if they are older/disadvantaged.


Subcategories

Adamants: So the most annoying things happen when both people are stubborn and continue to walk until they clash into each other. Not exactly clash, but one person will be "weaker" and move to the other line of walking at the last second, due to the other person's total stubborness and determination.

Peacemakers: Will go out of their way to make sure the other person has no conflict in their path of walking. These people usually step off the sidewalk onto grass, the street, lawns, etc. They may also decide that they might as well cross the street earlier than later.

Slouchers: When walking with 1+ friends, this person will fall behind the others when the sidewalk accomodates two lanes and a person is coming from the opposite direction.

Leaders: The reverse of slouchers, basically the one(s) in the front of your mini single file line.

"Clueless girls": walk terribly slow, often forcing people behind to speed up the pace and curb around the "Clueless girl" at a faster rate.

Stoppers: The kind of people that immediately stop when they realize that they're going the wrong way or forgot something. May lead to irritated reactions and frustration to traffic from the rear of the stopper, especially bad in two lane walkways.

Headphoners: Not necessarily listening to music or headphones, these people pretend to be busy, perhaps looking at something to the side or picking at their fingernails. They like to see what other people will be forced to do in this situation. Passive and effective, but not foolproof if you run into an Adamant/Headphoner.

Racers: This kind of person likes to walk at such a brisk pace that it's almost like they are racing with other pedestrians. Walking on support beams, going twice the speed of other walkers, and other methods are utilized to get to this person's destination with speed. May or may not be mindful of others.

Tempo Walkers: A subdivision of headphoners. Although they do not have a direct effect on the flow of walking, they themselves like to walk at the speed of whatever music they are listening to. May garner strange looks when the current song is slow, or incredibly fast. This possibly has an effect on traffic, if the person is truely mindless.

Tailgaters: Unfortunately, these kinds of people seem to be walking at exactly the same pace, or just a quarter step faster than the person in front of them. This is frustrating because it becomes hard to overtake, and will either force the tailgater to slow down or speed up drastically. This is especially bothersome if the person in front is a smoker, and the tailgater is a non-smoker.


So which kind(s) are you and are there any more categories you can picture?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Hehe after reading all the replies, I started to realize just how many sub-categories there are involving walking. As mentioned before too, the first set of rules can apply to escalators as well.

I'm glad that I'm not the only one who walks on the right. It actually confuses me why people walk on the left so much and then shoot looks at me if I try to walk on the right side.

There's nowhere I can't reach.