h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There is the gentle art of Pedestrian Etiquette.

I'm not sure what you mean.

Pedestrians should acknowledge by waving that the driver has given way to them. Unlike light-controlled crossings the driver is not compelled to stop.

Well, there are books of etiquette for just about everything, and rule-books and guides to help us negotiate our way through so much of human social activity and interaction. And yet, such an important, integral part of our daily lives, often the only real interaction we have with the vast (sometimes unwashed) mass of fellow humanity, is being a pedestrian, on the footpaths of our cities, towns and country. And yet I know of no guide, a helpful book of suggestions (perhaps small, to fit in a hip-pocket - and I mean hip: I think walking is the hippest thing in the world)- with which to negotiate my way through the crowds. How should I act when on a deserted street I pass someone: in what circumstances should I acknowledge, when not? Is it a town, or the city? Is it Ok to stop immediately upon passing through an exit/entrance, though other people might be behind? Do I pause before a shop entrance, in indecision, holding up someone on their lunchbreak shopping for a birthday present for a relative? Is hurry an abuse of the privilege of having legs? Is there such a thing as excessive speed as a pedestrian?
A whole generation, it seems, has grown up with driving as their primary mode of transport, and everyone sems to be familiar with the dos and don'ts there; but I wonder often if people have forgotten, or just simply have never learnt or even considered, that there are considerations when driving their body through the lunchtime crowds, or cutting across traffic in the peak-hour mall. Not to mention crossing the roads.