John Yamamoto-Wilson <johndeletethis@rarebooksinjapan.com> wrote:

> John W. wrote:
> 
> > What I've always found interesting is that people tend to
> >  walk on the right side of the sidewalk
> 
> Don't you mean the *left* side? If they drive on the left, surely you'd
> expect them to walk on the left? 

I wonder if that's an extension of the purely practical advice to face
the oncoming traffic when walking on narrow roads with minimal or
non-existent sidewalks?

> (In practice, they walk in totally random fashion, as the fancy takes them.)

Yup. 

> 
> >  escalators, etc.
> 
> Well, escalators are different. People *do* walk on the right, and stand
> on the left, so they use the right side for overtaking, just like cars on
> the road.

That's true in Toyko, but apparently Osakans were told to stand on the
right and walk on the left, on the grounds that that is how it's done in
Gaikoku.

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