Walking along the side of the street provides for quick insight into how you interact with strangers. The limited space creates an unavoidable, yet unintentional, interaction. How do you react?

Here in Los Angeles, people are often too preoccupied with the things going on in their life to willfully engage with the unknown people surrounding them in their day to day lives. Despite the tendency to ignore the unknown, there is a time when we must interact with someone we would otherwise ignore: when they are in our way (both literally and figuratively).

Most passages in urban life are designed to minimize confrontations, which makes things flow easier. Streets have lanes, directions, stop lights to give an orderly flow to get you where you are going. On the other hand, sidewalks do not have special lanes and are often so narrow that when two are walking in different directions, a confrontation is unavoidable. How do you react?

You See Them Coming. Do You Acknowledge Them?

What do you do when you are walking down the street and see another coming towards you? Do you keep on looking? Do you wait to see if they look back? Do you keep your eyes to the ground? Your choice will probably depend on two things: (1) how secure you feel and (2) whether or not you are in a group.

If you are by yourself and feel comfortable passing another person, you will be more likely to look at him and wait to see if he looks back. If he looks back, one of you will probably say something (such as “hi” or “good day”) to show it is a friendly interaction and break any tension. If you don’t feel comfortable, you will likely keep your head down, hoping to pass soon.

If you are with a group, you will almost certainly ignore the individual passing you and focus on the other members of your group. The same is true if the other are in a group and you are by yourself: they will most likely keep focus on each other and ignore you.

If it’s a sunny day and I’m walking around my neighborhood, I’ll tend to say “hi” to strangers, because we both feel safe. Sometimes I walk around at night and it’s a different story. The night seems a little more “dangerous” to interact, so I avoid looking at people.

Who Has the Right of Way?

It is very informal here in Southern California, so there aren’t any formal rules for who should move to the side when two are walking down the same road. I’ve noticed that the general rule is just try to avoid touching the other person. A common sight to see when two meet is both trying to move out of the way, block each other, move to the other side, and block each other again. When you sway back and forth, both of you are wasting time. If one just made a decision and stuck to it, both would be on their way much quicker.

Most people will try to appear to be “nice” and “civil” by making room for the other, but every once in a while you will encounter someone who believes he is “entitled” to the right of way and will make no effort to avoid bumping into you. These people are the most interesting in terms of learning to deal with unexpected conflict.

If you’re feeling brave and don’t particularly care about looking rude, try walking towards oncoming pedestrians and see what happens. As you get closer to a collision, you may quickly find your judgments about others being revealed to you: do you think the other person is going to move? do you think they will start a fight if you bump them? are you feeling scared, confident, or indifferent? maybe you actually want to interrupt them, so you can meet a new person?

Since walking down the street creates forced interactions between people (rather than willful interactions), most will act with understanding if you block each other. The sidewalk is a low-risk arena to gain an understanding of yourself, your judgments of others, and testing how you deal with conflict.