The Right Side of the Road

My dear, sweet City sidewalks.  Dirty, smelly, dusty, gum covered, over crowded, over run, construction filled and scaffold covered sidewalks.  Littered with stoops, doormen, garbage bags, and the occasional rat (Ice Queen, don't hate).  If you don't hit the pavement every day and walk everywhere in this City you're straight up not a New Yorker.  There is so much to see from street level.  Take it in; you'll really feel like you're a part of something bigger than yourself - part of a moving, breathing, body of concrete nature.  There's history, architecture, diversity; life in New York revolves around a swift movement on these City streets.  That being said, I'm a believer in sidewalk etiquette.  There's a standard that we follow, a certain hustle, a natural flow.  There's a right side of the road, and a wrong side of the road. Keep up, or get out. Savvy?


I'd like to generously provide a few notes from a seasoned NYC walker to make your sidewalk experience more pleasant:

Know where you're going. Don't suddenly pull a U-turn and knock the person out who is walking behind you.

"Excuse me" actually does go a long way.

Avoid walking in rows of three or more. You move slower, and you're hard to get around.  This affectively pisses off everyone behind you who is trying to get by.

Stay to the right side of the sidewalk.  In the movie Clueless (my tweenaged Bible) dreamy Josh (played by my husband, Paul Rudd) is quoted saying: "In America, we drive on the right side of the road" to which Cher Horowitz (played by Alicia Silverstone) responds "You try driving in platforms!"  Love Cher, but apply Josh's logic to walking as well.  Stay to the right side of the [sidewalk] and we won't have any problems.

Don't clog the crosswalk. Simply, we're all trying to cross the street.

I've found that if you're in a busy area, ie: Times Square or China Town, if you walk in the street just off the curb, but still out of the cars way, there's a clear lane to start seriously moving.  You should be in a rush to get the hell out of that neighborhood anyway and you're not getting anywhere fast behind the waves of tourists stopping a million times to take pictures of every window, cab and light post they see.


See where this gets you, and feel free to comment with some of your own curbside walking tips.  You must have learned a thing or two for yourself by now.

peace.love.BossBitch


Walking Man - James Taylor