The Sidewalk Tango

 

How often do you walk down the sidewalk and all of a sudden you are face-to-face with another walker and the two of you do this uncomfortable shuffle where both of you move left and right at the same rate trying to get past the other one.  It's almost a perfectly choreographed little dance-shuffle-tango thing as both people move from left-to-right while  the other guys moves right-to-left a couple of times until finally one relents and acts the part of the matador and lets the other fly by.    It's kind of a ridiculous event but it sort of proves that all people are wired similarly since the two people are in almost complete sync in terms of the rhythm of the dance but that still doesn't explain why one guy's first movement is left while the other guy's first movement is right. 

What I don't understand is that we drive on the left side of the road, we pass other cars on their left side as well, our escalators go up on the left side and down on the right side, tracks always run counter-clockwise as do conveyer belts.   Everything we do, whether we realize it or not has a routine… everything except walking down the side-walk.     See when people walk down the street there is complete disorder.  People walk northbound and southbound and there is no concept of walking on the left or right side of the sidewalk to avoid collisions.    Now most of the time this  isn't such a big deal since people are able to stop and go much more quickly when on foot than in a car or a bike for example but the sidewalk tango is a huge exception

Wouldn't it just make sense that when you are encountered with this routine each guy walks left?   

There has to be some reason behind this and after doing some deep probing I think the sidewalk tango happens mainly when a left-handed person encounters a right-handed person.  Although they understand that everything is set for right-handers (those school desks with the table attached to the arm, scissors, buttons) those crazy lefties are wired to go the wrong way.  Since the sidewalk tango is a completely subconscious event, I theorize that the lefty has a natural inclination to walk right while the rightly naturally walks left which causes the start of the dance.

So I implore my left-handed readers to have some courtesy while you walk..you are causing a lot of disarray and it's causing me a giant headache.   Stay to your side and we'll stay to ours and we'll all have to interact with one another that much less.