General
1. Keep/bear right. This is customary in the U.S. Keep this in mind at all times.
2. Walk in as straight a trajectory as possible. There are many other people around you traveling at varying rates of speed who can't always anticipate your change of direction, and meandering is just plain annoying.
3. If you must stop, pull over to the side. Do not stop suddenly in the middle of the sidewalk. Chances are there's someone directly behind you who will collide with you if you do, and even if he or she does not, making him/her change direction rapidly will disrupt the flow of traffic and likely cause a collision between said person and another innocent pedestrian.
4. Do not abruptly change direction. Glance around you before you do to make sure you don't mow anyone down.
5. When approaching someone traveling toward you in the same trajectory as yourself, again, keep/bear right. If all follow this rule there will be no head-on collisions or awkward sidewalk dances.
6. When walking with a group of people, it is not always possible to walk two, three, four, or more abreast. Shift to single file if someone else is approaching you or needs to pass, even if it means pausing your conversation momentarily. Do not make the other person step into traffic or trash to accommodate your group.
7. When conversing with another person and walking, do not use elaborate hand gestures. You will hit someone.
8. Do not swing your arms excessively. You will hit someone, and chances are it's not actually helping you walk faster. This rule also applies to umbrellas, shopping bags and other packages.
9. If you encounter another person on an otherwise empty sidewalk, give him or her space. It is not necessary to brush against the only other person in sight when passing. It's rude, creepy, and you should be rejoicing in the fact that there is actually enough space to momentarily move at will.
10. Even if you have nowhere to be, please make an attempt to keep up with the flow of traffic. Otherwise, if you have no deadline, wait until rush hour is over.
11. When entering/exiting through a doorway, do not stop as soon as you get inside/outside of the door. You are not the only one who needs to get in/out. Move to the side.
12. If you can't text message and walk normally, don't text message and walk at the same time.
13. Do not spit. If it's life-threatening (which it never will be) and you must spit, at least look around to make sure your wad is not going to hit a hapless bystander.
14. If you are pushing something large, such as a stroller, a hand truck, or a rabbit, please keep both hands on it and push in a straight line. When you take one hand off, your cart, stroller, etc. will veer to one side, either cutting someone off or getting in his or her way.
15. If you are pushing one of the aforementioned objects on wheels and you need to stop, please pull over and park it parallel to the nearest wall or stationary object. If you park it perpendicularly, you largely block the way.
16. If you are pulling a piece of luggage on wheels, keep it as close behind you as possible, or else someone will trip on it or accidentally kick it.
17. If walking with a child, please pay attention to what he or she is doing. Make sure (s)he doesn't stray or bolt into someone's legs.
Stairs/Escalators
18. Descend/ascend on the right-hand side of the stairs. This keeps traffic flowing.
19. Do not stop abruptly while ascending/descending the stairs. It is likely someone will run into you.
20. Do not sit on stairs in busy transportation hubs such as Grand Central Terminal. They are heavy foot traffic throughways, not benches.
21. Similarly, don't stand at the entrance/exit of a stairway during rush hour to take pictures or check your text messages; you block traffic. Please step to the side.
22. Never turn around on the stairs and attempt to go back up/down the same way you came unless it's 3 am and there's no one around. Everyone else will be moving in the opposite direction. Not only will you find it difficult to get to where you want to go, but everyone will curse at you. Instead, continue to the bottom/top and ascend/descend on the opposite side with the flow of traffic.
23. If you can, help people carrying strollers, carts, or other large objects up or down the stairs. It helps everyone in the end.
24. Expanding on rule #8, don't excessively swing your arms, bags, or umbrellas when climbing stairs. You'll probably hit someone in the face.
25. On escalators, stand to the right, climb to the left. If you don't feel like climbing, move over so that others can. If you are traveling with another person and you both want to stand, do not stand two abreast. Stand one in front of the other on the right hand side so other people can pass. No one else cares about your conversation.
26. If you are the first person in a crowd to get to the stairs, please take them quickly and with purpose. If you are inclined to dawdle, wait a bit till the faster climbers go by.
Walking in the Rain
27. The smaller your umbrella, the better life in the rain is for everyone. Large golf umbrellas are obnoxious both opened (they extend over the whole sidewalk and pose hazards to your fellow pedestrians' eyes) and closed (they are long). If you carry one, take extra precaution to not be a jerk.
28. When holding an umbrella over your head, be alert. Lift it above the heads of those who don't have umbrellas. If you are taller than someone approaching holding an umbrella overhead, lift your umbrella above that person's as you pass; it's much harder for the shorter person to avoid you. Avoid poking people in the eyes with umbrella spokes at all costs.
29. Just because holding an umbrella overhead partially obscures your vision, it is not an excuse to not look where you are going. Peer out frequently and remain alert to your surroundings rather than crashing into people.
30. When walking under scaffolding, close your umbrella. There simply isn't room to walk with them open, and the scaffolding overhead keeps you dry.
Scaffolding
31. Walk single file temporarily while under scaffolding. There is not enough space to walk two abreast and maintain the flow of traffic in both directions.
32. If physically able, try not to walk slower than the average pace of those around you. You create a bottleneck, because people can't pass, and those who walk faster than you will secretly want to punch you in the back of the head.
33. Again, keep right. This is particularly important under scaffolding, as others are prevented from going around you by the horizontal support bars.
34. Do not--under any circumstances--stand, loiter, or abruptly stop under scaffolding. There is very little room to get around you. If you are trying to get out of the rain, stand against the building wall (preferably behind the horizontal support bars). This allows others to continue on their respective ways.
35. Please refer to rule #30.
Subway
36. As we all learned in grammar school science class, two bodies of matter cannot occupy the same space at the same time. Therefore, you must let people off the train before you get on.
37. When boarding the train, move as far as you can into the center of the car so that others can board the train without having to squeeze past you. Yes, it's nice to stand by the door so you can be the first person off, but it can't work out that way for you all the time.
38. If seated, look around. Are any elderly people, pregnant women, or people trying to manage children standing near you? If so, be considerate and offer one of them your seat.
39. When possible, let shorter people stand near vertical bars. It is hard for them to reach those overhead horizontal bars above the seats.
40. Parents, please fold your strollers and hold your children when the train is crowded. Strollers lead to bottlenecks when people are trying to get around them to board or exit the train.
41. This is addressed to everyone, but pertains especially to men: close your damn legs when you sit down. You're not fooling anyone--there is absolutely no need for you to sit with your knees splayed apart. You are effectively occupying two seats when you do so and are preventing others from sitting. In addition, if people are sitting next to you, they will be creeped out by your legs touching theirs unnecessaily.
42. Turn the iPod volume down. No one cares what you're listening to; in fact they're annoyed that you're essentially forcing your music choice on them. You're also contributing to your own permanent hearing damage.
43. Bikes on the train during rush hour are really annoying. I realize they're eco- and heart-friendly, but just know that pre-coffee, everyone hates you and your decision to ride a bike halfway to work in the morning.
44. If you are not positive that you can ascend stairs faster than 90% of the people on your train car, don't be the person who must stand directly next to the doors that let out closest to the stairs. Let the people who actually want to bolt up the stairs do so; it produces slightly more space for everyone.
45. Gentlemen, it should go without saying that you should not be a perv and grope or expose yourself to others. It's kind of against the law. However, it is also in poor taste to press yourself inappropriately against women, to obviously stand too close, and to blatantly look down their blouses or stare at any part of their anatomy the entire ride. How would you feel if someone did this to your mother, your sister, your daughter, your girlfriend, or your best friend?
Smoking
Smoking may be your lifestyle choice, but it is not everyone else's. If you are a smoker you should try to acknowledge this and not force your decision on others by observing the following rules of common courtesy:
46. Move out of doorways, even if it's raining, so everyone going in and out does not get a face full of your cigarette smoke.
47. If you must walk and smoke, realize that if you hold your burning cigarette casually in your arm and let it swing loosely by your side, you're probably going to burn someone, and he/she will not be pleased.
48. Also realize when you smoke and walk at the same time, your exhalation cloud will end up in the face of the person behind you. You waive the right to be surprised or offended if they pass and glare at you while muttering under their breath.
49. There are some places in front of which you should never smoke. Hospitals and preschools are some of those places.
50. Try to look out for open windows when standing on the sidewalk smoking. If you see them, move down half a block or so to keep people inside from having to breathe your secondhand.
While I tried to be thorough, I am sure that this list is in no way comprehensive. If you note any glaring omissions, please be sure to post them in the comments section so that all may be aware.
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