NYC cultural faux pas

Courtesy Kottke, a bunch of answers to the question, "What are some cultural faux pas in New York?" If I had to summarize the spirit of the responses I've read so far, it would be, "This busy, crowded place is our home and it's tough for us to get to where we need to be and to do everything we need to do in a timely fashion without killing each other. As a visitor, please understand this pressure and don't make things worse."

... we're used to running around our Habitrail in a systematic way. If you upset that, then it's bad. But it's worse if you can't seem to realize what you're doing. The sidewalks and subways are our highways. It's like driving too slowly or something if you lope around, walking four-abreast. It drives us crazy when you walk 3 or 4 abreast, arm in arm as if terrified of this place. Be situationally aware and ease up.

Situational awareness: exactly.

I confess to having a New York City attitude wherever I am. I have scant patience for those who are oblivious of the people in their immediate vicinity. Intellectually I understand that these people may be enthralled by the surrounding architecture, unfamiliar smells, exotic native denizens, etc., but it doesn't make me any happier that they're blocking the sidewalk when I'm running to catch a bus.

Oh, and there's a special circle of hell reserved for those who lean against stanchions (poles) on public transit. The rest of us want to hold them, dipstick. (Sadly, these idiots tend to be lazy, inconsiderate locals in my experience.) And you, standing in the aisle with the stuffed backpack, try taking it off so when you twist and bend to see whatever it was that caught your attention outside, you don't smack somebody with your outsized turtle shell.

If you find yourself in a subway station that is deep underground, and there is a longer-than average escalator ride back to street-level, please take a few seconds to take in your surroundings and exercise whatever skills of perception you may possess, however meager they might be. Hopefully, after a short amount of time, you will notice that on the escalator, those who wish to stand for the duration of the ride do so on the right side, and those who wish to walk their way up do so on the left.

I'll bet most people's experience with escalators is in malls, so permit me to explain that in cities and airports, escalators are almost a form of transit in themselves: they're part of the commute. You can understand, then, that a lot of people who use them are in a hurry. It seems to be common practice across the country to stand on the right so others can climb on the left. If you're visiting an urban area, get with the program. (Some places even have put up signs codifying this practice.)