Rules of the Sidewalk-NYC
 

It is time again for:

Rules of the Sidewalk

For NY’ers and Tourists

• WALK TO THE RIGHT, even if you are English or a leftist.
• Electronic device users-take one pod out of your ear and place it up your butt so you will have stereo. WATCH WHERE YOU ARE WALKING!
• Do not stop short.
• Do not do pirouettes in the middle of the street when lost.
• Do not walk five across the street as if you are playing Ringo Leevio or Red Rover, Red Rover let Fred Come Over.
• Drink your coffee at the coffee shop. The street is not a cocktail party or your cubicle, so do not hold your drink in front of you.

Cell-ibites
• SHUT UP!!!. Now we all know publicly how petty and inane you are privately.
• Do not dial the phone as you walk. Stand by the curb like a fire hydrant.
• Do not pace the street, you are not home in your jammies and slippers.
• Watch where you are going. You are on the phone, not us.

Just NY’ers
• Do not run down the street between the walkers
• Do not ride your bike down the street. I know bikers think they are elevated liv e forms but pedestrians may disagree.
• Sunday fathers-do not use your child’s stroller as a battering ram. If you are mad that you are divorced or stuck with the kids, take it on yourself not us.
• Dog walkers-try not to have the entire 20 foot lead extend across the sidewalk. Someone is going to step on your Chihuahua.

Tourists
• Look at the map either at the curb or next to a building not on a corner, the middle of the street, by garbage cans already blocking the street, or on the subway steps.
• If you must window shop do it by the windows and not from the middle of the sidewalk with binoculars.
• Jay-walking is a God given right. If you are going to wait for a light, get out of the way of those who want to break the law.
• If you are going to look up assign a designated seeing-eye tourist so others can pass.

My favorite is the group of 5 or 6 that stops right in the middle of the sidewalk to take photos of one in front of something. But they don't - since there are too many other pedestrians. They just stand there clogging up the sidewalk interminably - waiting for a "celar shot".

If you must have a photo of Ethel in front of something either accept that there will be a lot of other people in it (we are NOT going to stand there for 5 minutes while you get the exact pose you want and focus) or go out and take it at 6 am when there are fewer people on the street.

Second, if you are going to ask questions about the subways do not mention color. Color is immaterial. You need to know either what train you want - A or C or 5. Or what line you want - Broadway local. Or what staion you want - Columbus Circle. Color means nothing to locals.

For tourists: If you would like not to be seen as a tourist when on the subway stand directly in the car door so that it is difficult for those entering or exiting - you'll be just like the locals. Or - if you are seated: Cross your legs and extend your toe out into the middle of the aisle so other passengers will have to dodge around your foot or get some of the mud on your shoe on their clothing.

A link to last year's thread:

http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...e-sidewalk.cfm

Also when entering or exiting subway stairwells, don't stop at the top, middle or the bottom of the stairs for any reason. Please move away from the stairwell and off to the side somewhere, so you are out of the way of stairwell traffic.

We just returned from NYC and, while walking around, I remarked to my husband that someone would probably be posting one of those "rules" posts again.

The people you're talking to/about a) won't see this, b) can't help themselves, and c) aren't aware or d) don't care.

LOL, these are so funny, but true.

The one time a police officer accused me of jay-walking, he was jay-walking with me. He thought he was funny. He was.

I say that life is too short for so many rules. Just do your own thing and forget about this thread!

I say that life is too short for so many rules. Just do your own thing and forget about this thread!

I hope you do not feel this way when you drive.

And I otherwise assume this is justifcation for engaging in many of these behaviors.

Tourists: Watch the traffic and not the Walk/Don't Walk signs.

The quickest way to get run over is to cross the street during the 'Walk' light without looking at traffic.

Hey, not every tourist is Crocodile Dundee ;)

Signed,
suffering San Franciscan

The biggest risk crossing the street is people from outside the city to don;t understand that there is NO right turn on red. (Yes, I know, in most places you can turn right on red - but in NYC you can't.) (Local cab drivers, no matter how erratic they seem, will manage to avoid hitting people except in extremely rare circumstances - usually when hit by another car.)

I've nearly been hit several times by clueless drivers from out os state who

1) turn right directly through a red light

2) seem to think that all those pedestrians in front of them will avoid being hit by their car (pedestrians have an absolute right of way)

The difference is when I drive, I follow a set of government-enacted rules.
The "rules" here (and I use the word "rules" very loosely) are on the main just wishes of some that the masses would conform to a certain set of actions (or non-actions). Perhaps it is the word "rules" that I object to.
Hell, I'll be the first to admit that there are a lot of good SUGGESTIONS here!

LOL! Thanks for this thread, Adu. It brought a smile to my face, showing me that some things just never change. Thanks! :-)

BTW, I still vote with HowardR.

Hey, not every tourist is Crocodile Dundee

He was polite, considerate, pleasant, and fictional.

There seems to be a considerable increase in the amount of inconsiderate boobs with wires coming out of their ears and inanities from their mouths. At first it seemed linited to younger people and self-important business types but now it is every age and group.

There seems to be a considerable increase in the amount of inconsiderate boobs with wires coming out of their ears and inanities from their mouths. At first it seemed linited to younger people and self-important business types but now it is every age and group

Amen Adu! And they yell into the phone as if they are using two cans connected with string to communicate. That, and my pet peeve is the Bluetooth...all I see is Lilly Tomlin with her headset..."one ringy dingy.."

If you need information - be selfish. YOU are the guest -- Start all questions with a statement that begins with the words I or WE have to need to want to are trying to do X. If you have a time constraint, say so. New Yorkers love you but we only answer 1 question and then we say, Have a Nice Day...To make the most out of your opportunity.

Way too many stories to illustrate why this is important - (If/when I'm not busy I often play 20 questions with tourists but one day...) I had a group at the SI Ferry Terminal in Manhattan and I was busy and a stranger came up and said "Where do I pay for this?" (NOTE - I is the 3rd word here) - I said, you don't - it's free - Have a nice day.

As we left the terminal in SI - The same person came up and said - How come I'm not at the Statue of Liberty and I had to say - because you didn't ask that question 1/2 an hour ago.

I do alot of walking, cycling, running, rollerblading and driving in NY - no Vespa for me.

No one group is worse than the other. Each group can be as badly behaved, sinister and awful as the next.

Very funny, thanks for a good laugh! The section on Cell-ibites is so true for everywhere in America!

"• Do not ride your bike down the street. I know bikers think they are elevated liv e forms but pedestrians may disagree"

Maybe you meant, down the sidewalk? Can I add, that the bike lanes are the few feet of safety that cyclists are allowed in this city. Please, don't use the bike lane as a sidewalk. If you must, then please get out of the way when you hear a bell or someone yelling "bike behind you get out of the bike lane".

Don't sit on a folding chaise lounge in the middle of Broadway.

very funny....guess these rules apply to many cities!

Am seriously thinking that New Yorkers are one bunch of crazy people - how the hell will a Londoner like me be able to control all of my bad habits - ie. walking on the left, looking left when I cross the road, standing back from the window so that I can actually see more that the square inch in front of my nose.

As for the jaywalking and sticking my toes out into the aisle on the subway - I've got those ones down pat after years of leaving the pub late on a Friday night and skidding across the road before sprawling out on the tube on my way home.
Can't wait to get to NYC next month, if only to see how many of these "rules of the NYC Sidewalk" I manage to break in the first few days -- reckon that it may be close to all!

Don't sit on a folding chaise lounge in the middle of Broadway.

These people look like they are waiting to be hit by a truck. I have lived in NYC all my life and would just think I am going to get killed when the light changes.

Hi Aduchamp1, apart from the walking to the right, much of your post could go for Sydney as well :)

What?! You don't like Bloomberg Beach either?! :-O

My biggest AHHHHHHHH, with tourists, is that they walk as slowly or slower along the avenues when the rest of us are trying to get somewhere.

I've often told people they were going to get runover by walking that slowly. We have lots of patience with tourists, except when they are IN THE WAY!!

I can only wonder how some of my fellow New Yorkers on this thread act when they are tourists in, say, another major tourist capital such as Paris or Rome! Do they conform to the "rules" in those cities?

I can only wonder how some of my fellow New Yorkers on this thread act when they are tourists in, say, another major tourist capital such as Paris or Rome! Do they conform to the "rules" in those cities?

We have been traveling aborad for almost forty years and I hope the answer is yes. I am sure their have been breachs of etiquette, but we try to be good guests.

But, I bet you stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and were awestruck the first time you saw the Eiffel Tower! And, c'mon, fess up, didn't you also stop short at that moment?

I can only wonder how some of my fellow New Yorkers on this thread act when they are tourists in, say, another major tourist capital such as Paris or Rome! Do they conform to the "rules" in those cities?

YES. And when in other cities I retain my understanding of the terms "lunch hour" and "rush hour" and I am considerate of those trying to live their lives around me.

But, I bet you stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and were awestruck the first time you saw the Eiffel Tower! And, c'mon, fess up, didn't you also stop short at that moment

At least for me, you picked the wrong tourist attraction. We have been to Paris on a number of occasions and have yet to visit it.

Yes, when we are tourists we stop to look, that is what a tourist does, but I hope I have kept the number of people who trip over me to a minimum.

There is a double standard here. Americans are often criticized for their behavior overseas. But then many foreigners do not inquire as what our customs are.

By the way, many times I will stop and ask tourists if they need help. For those who are super critical "how do you know they are tourists?" The guide books and maps are the tip offs. 99% are appreciative, the other 1% I scare to death.

"I can only wonder how some of my fellow New Yorkers on this thread act when they are tourists in, say, another major tourist capital such as Paris or Rome! Do they conform to the "rules" in those cities?"

I've been going to Paris almost every year for the last 15 years or so and I have to say that there are definitely Rules (note the capital "R") over there and I don't have a problem abiding by them. Comes with the territory.

It's not necessarily European, or other foreign tourists. It could be American tourists, and often enough, fellow NYers.

"There is a double standard here. Americans are often criticized for their behavior overseas. But then many foreigners do not inquire as what our customs are."
I don't see any double standard. They criticize us, and we criticize them......as this thread certainly illustrates.

"Yes, when we are tourists we stop to look, that is what a tourist does, but I hope I have kept the number of people who trip over me to a minimum."
That's exactly my point. Yes, when you're a tourist you stop and look. Perhaps you think too many stop and look too often, and that very well may be the case. But, when the shoe is on the other foot (i.e., when it's a New Yorker in non-New Yorker territory) I'm sure many of "us" stop and look too often to the dissatisfaction of those locals. As you said, it's the nature of the beast. So, give them a little slack!!!

And, I repeat, what rules for tourists are we talking about? I know of no official set rules that include the about listings. Good suggestions and guidelines? Yes. Rules? No!

PS: When we were in Paris for two weeks, I do not recall any officials set of Rules (note the capital R) that we had to follow.

PS: When we were in Paris for two weeks, I do not recall any officials set of Rules (note the capital R) that we had to follow.

You were not paying attention. For example, there are rituals as to how to shop and what to say.

Aduchamp1, you lost me there. Please explain "...there are rituals as to how to shop and what to say."

For example:

When you enter a store, you should say Bon Jour Madame (or whomever it may be). It is the secret handshake for polite service. Then you should not touch the mercandise unless you ask, since it is also impolite to touch another possessions. And never raise your voice above a normal conversation. And before requesting something a s'il vous plait is always helpful.

Bu

These are my rules for general living, not just shopping in Paris.