(Google New York sidewalk flower bed) In this case it went from 7-ish to 4 feet. the sidewalks in New York open and narrow every 10 yards or so for flower beds or trees. I would have had to pull myself in to let them get by. I was on the inside of the sidewalk and there was a wall/fence for a home to my right. But Yknow what? Not today Satan.ĮTA: i wasn’t planning on getting this technical but people seem to be getting caught on the details. We all just know that for their whole lives, women (and short people) have accommodated them. And I am done apologizing for taking up space. Usually in a situation like this, a mix of two things happen: polite groups will naturally move one behind the other to stay to their side of the sidewalk and for narrow passes (and from decades of trying to not take up space) I will tuck my shoulder or maybe pull to the side to accommodate. Walking towards me are two ~6ft tall WASPy AF dudes drinking iced coffees that I’m sure cost $6+.They are walking next to each other on a piece of sidewalk maybe 4ft wide and I am speed-walking towards them on the right of the sidewalk. I’m still polite waiting to pass people as appropriate and I finally get to clear sidewalk so I can speed up and get home. So today I am walking my dog through a particularly unaware group of people. (And to be honest, when you have a dog, most people have the wherewithal to give you a little extra space) I follow the rules of the sidewalk and stay to the right with her away from people. I walk with my dog but I keep her on a very short leash so she stays by my side.
On a beautiful day like today, the sidewalk gets extremely crowded. I live in a busy city and people walk here. This just happened and I’m on mobile so between mobile formatting and adrenaline-fueled stream-of-conscious writing, you’ll have to pardon any errors and ramblings.