Bumping into people on the street in the UK
Probably most of us have been in this situation when walking on the street and somebody else coming in the opposite direction, for a moment both hesitate on which side to take and doing a mini-awkward dance (a poor example in this video).
After spending some time in the UK, I noticed this happened to me way more often than it does at home. I also noticed that instinctively I always tend to lean to my right side first (in my country people drive in the right lane), while in the UK people tended to lean to their left side (in the UK people drive in the left lane).
So, when walking directly to someone coming in the opposite direction, taking the same side of the sidewalk as the lane used to drive in that country (left in places like UK, right in USA) is a social norm I'm not aware of, or is it just my imagination?
Best Answer
This got me when I first went to the US. I'm from NZ, and like the UK we drive on the left. I noticed after America that our escalators also tend to be on the left (ie if there are two escalators/travelators to/from a floor, the one you'll use tends to be on the left). In the US, I noticed a lot more on the right.
Initially in the US, I bumped into lots of people, doing 'the dance' like you say, and eventually got used to switching and it improved.
Then I returned home, and boom, opposite problem :(
When I went to the UK, I read Wikipedia and noticed they claimed Londoners would always stand to the right on escalators. I thought this a joke until I got there and found the social norm and semi-offical rule is certainly to do that.
In Australia, you stand on the left on escalators. Go figure.
In Japan, I was told Osaka differs from other cities for this rule.
So yes, there is a difference and sometimes it's an official 'rule' (ie the signs in London's underground saying 'stand on the right'), while as Gilles says, sometimes it's a societal thing, we self-organise based on other normalities - perhaps subconciously around doing the same as when we drive.
Pictures about "Bumping into people on the street in the UK"
What is it called when someone bumps into you?
to meet (someone) by chance. I happened to bump into Federico in the hallway. Synonyms. meet.Can you bump into someone?
If you bump into someone you know, you meet them unexpectedly.What are the chances of bumping into someone?
If you know one other person in the crowd and you walked 18,000 steps in a day, your chances of bumping into them would be about 11%. So if you know 10 people in the crowd, your chances of bumping into one of them increases to about 70%.Is it bumped into or onto?
Your example has the verb "to bump" This has different nuances depending upon whether it is a transitive (bump is not a verb of motion) or intransitive verb (bump is a verb of motion): He pushed me, and I bumped my head on /against /into the door. He pushed me, and my head bumped on /against /into the door.Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Deeana Arts, Lina Kivaka, Lina Kivaka, Sophie Louisnard