The perils of walking slow: scientists analyze sidewalk rage

I have a similar but slightly different issue: raging at bicycles while walking on the sidewalk. I've been hit twice, by completely unrepentant cyclists, and had near misses with scores of others. I will always give a dirty look at a cyclist on a sidewalk, the meanness in direct proportion with their speed.

One that gets me: riding in a business district right next to open shop doors--someone could walk out and get seriously injured. For these cyclists, I will sometimes step in front of them (if I can safely) and nicely tell them to take it to the street.

It Got worse with smartphones too, people seem to respond to read their emails or ply their stupid flying bird game in the most idiotic of places (the subway stairwell comes to mind)

Sometimes i stifle the urge to just push the annoyance down the stairs.

I guess I would be considered a "sidewalk rager", although rage is a very strong word since I've never risen to the level of physical contact or even verbal confrontation - perhaps exasperation would be a better word. It's not limited to sidewalk-walking; it also applies to city driving.

In my experience (having lived in San Francisco and New York) there are two types of people who trigger this:

1) People who are so self-absorbed that it doesn't even appear to register in their minds that there are actually other people in the city or on the road. Into this group would fall some cell-phone users, arrogant business-types, stroller-pushers, escalator-blockers, etc.

2) People who feel powerless in their own lives, and intentionally cause grief as a passive-aggressive way of asserting dominance over others without really breaking the law. Typically urban poor and out-of-town youths.

Lest anyone get the wrong idea, I don't think everyone needs to have the same conception of city etiquette as I do. I'm just describing one of the (little) drawbacks to living in a crowded city for someone with my personality.

Getting angry is just an emotion, so long as you handle yourself properly it doesn't really matter at all what you feel.

The point I and others are trying to get across here is that the author of the story is voicing an unrealistic expectation; one that involved everyone playing by the same rules. My point is that outward 'aggression' is a normal part of dealing with a crowd, you can't villain-ize it without villain-izing the behaviour that makes it necessary.

"If everyone were perfectly courteous, everyone would be standing perfectly still so as to not accidentally infringe on someone else's perceived personal space."

By this I mean a world where everybody acts to minimize discomfort of others on the streets is a fantasy.

Walking-etiquette seems to be even less established/clear in places in the UK where there are many tourists, expats and/or overseas students.

I've lived both in London and Oxford now, and in both these cities (but especially Oxford) there seems to be no default side of the road/sidewalk to walk on, or for passing people, leading to all kinds of interesting situations.

There is less bumping into one another here, probably, because most people here seem quite polite, but 'after you, no after you', and 'left-right-left dancing, as two people approach one another from opposite directions and consider on which side to pass', are quite commonly observed :)

I wonder how the left VS right side of the road issue + the idea that pedestrians should walk on the other side than traffic, so they can see cars coming - forked on top of it, works out in other, similar places, and whether it could lead to different local optima ?