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Park Life - which side of the path?

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Comments

  • #32
    kowloon
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,735 ✭✭✭✭kowloon


    Atlantic Dawn wrote: »
    Everyone should stay left side in a country driving on the left. That's how the trains run, most escalators etc.

    I live in the country where there's no path, so I've always been told to walk in the opposite direction so I can see oncoming traffic and keep in as it passes.


  • #33
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    Back in my dim and distant childhood out in the countryside, we were taught to walk on the right, facing oncoming vehicles. Wheels left, legs right. Does that still not count?


  • #34
    Thoie
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,344 ✭✭✭Thoie


    kowloon wrote: »
    I live in the country where there's no path, so I've always been told to walk in the opposite direction so I can see oncoming traffic and keep in as it passes.
    Deleted User wrote: »
    Back in my dim and distant childhood out in the countryside, we were taught to walk on the right, facing oncoming vehicles. Wheels left, legs right. Does that still not count?

    That's still good advice on a country road with no footpath so you're facing oncoming traffic, but I think Hamsterchops is talking about dedicated pedestrian/cycle paths in parks/greenways etc. In many, but not all, cases, these places specifically have signs around saying keep left. There's usually far more foot traffic than on your local boreen, so having people wandering all over the place is more disruptive.


  • #35
    kowloon
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,735 ✭✭✭✭kowloon


    Thoie wrote: »
    That's still good advice on a country road with no footpath so you're facing oncoming traffic, but I think Hamsterchops is talking about dedicated pedestrian/cycle paths in parks/greenways etc. In many, but not all, cases, these places specifically have signs around saying keep left. There's usually far more foot traffic than on your local boreen, so having people wandering all over the place is more disruptive.

    I get you, but wouldn't it be simpler if the dedicated walk side was the same on footpaths or roads? Combining cycle paths and pedestrian paths might be confusing.


  • #36
    PsychoPete
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,559 ✭✭✭PsychoPete


    I treat footpaths like the m50, I just stay in the middle then just cut across everyone


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  • #37
    Hamsterchops
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,613 ✭✭✭Hamsterchops


    Deleted User wrote: »
    Back in my dim and distant childhood out in the countryside, we were taught to walk on the right, facing oncoming vehicles. Wheels left, legs right. Does that still not count?

    Yes indeed, that still counts & makes total sense when walking on a country road with no footpath....

    But this thread is about park paths, those paths that wind their way through public parks, four to five feet wide, no cars, just prams, walkers, joggers, skateboarders & cyclists.


  • #38
    Pythagorean
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 244 ✭✭Pythagorean


    I find this walking on the right very prevalent in parks, particularly. I walk as if I am driving, ie, on the left, and there is a constant stream of walkers and joggers coming straight at me, and they expect me to get out of their way, as if I am somehow in the wrong. I was on a mountain walk recently, and there were mountain bikers coming towards me at speed, also on the right.


  • #39
    AllForIt
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,694 ✭✭✭AllForIt


    Rodney Bathgate wrote: »
    Left is right.

    Left is the new Right


  • #40
    Thoie
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,344 ✭✭✭Thoie


    kowloon wrote: »
    I get you, but wouldn't it be simpler if the dedicated walk side was the same on footpaths or roads? Combining cycle paths and pedestrian paths might be confusing.

    Well, on a country road with no footpath, you don't always stay on the right - for example when approaching a bend you're supposed to move left - it's all about staying visible to traffic. In some places there might be a path on one side of the road or not the other. In some places there might be a solid wall on one side of the road, but a nice wide grass verge on the other that you could step into. So I'd suggest that the dedicated walk side is "keep left", but that you adapt, if necessary, to your surroundings.

    In parks/greenways, there's generally nothing you need to adapt for, so should keep left.


  • #41
    JustAThought
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,324 ✭✭✭JustAThought


    Most park pathways do not have the space for a 6 foot wide berth between the person walking and the oncoming person or family -the lack of basic courtesy is shocking. everyone should make an effort to move the safe distance away which in most cases means stopping and stepping off the path. This includes joggers gasping for breath who think the pathway is their person heavy breathing close distance personal running circut -the selfishness is really shocking.MOVE AWAY.


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  • #42
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 5,121 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Rufeo wrote: »
    I also find this very disorienting. I drive on the left and I walk on the left. I don't know why people coming towards me on the road seem to walk on their right. I don't think it's any safer to be honest.
    https://www.rsa.ie/en/RSA/Pedestrians-and-Cyclists/Pedestrian-safety/
    Walking on the right puts the pedestrian facing oncoming traffic. It doubles the opportunities for people to react if necessary as both the driver and pedestrian has a chance of seeing each other. Walking on the left means that traffic is approaching from behind the pedestrian and it is harder for them to see and react to you if necessary.
    Pythagorean wrote: »
    I find this walking on the right very prevalent in parks, particularly. I walk as if I am driving, ie, on the left, and there is a constant stream of walkers and joggers coming straight at me, and they expect me to get out of their way, as if I am somehow in the wrong. I was on a mountain walk recently, and there were mountain bikers coming towards me at speed, also on the right.
    So again there is a constant stream of people coming against you but they are the ones in the wrong?


  • #43
    Hamsterchops
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,613 ✭✭✭Hamsterchops


    Well this thread really sums up what I've discovered in recent weeks in my local park, and that is that anything goes!

    Walk on the left, walk on the right, walk in the centre, there is no code for such footpaths, and if there ever was it's long been forgotten or muddled.

    I was genuinely curious at the beginning of this thread to see if there was an unwritten rule as to which side one should walk, jog etc, but it seems that it doesn't really matter :)

    Many posters talking about country road etiquette, whereby if there is no footpath one should always walk on the right against the flow of traffic (so that you can see them, & they can see you). This thread however is not about such roads.

    Let's hope for more clear dry weather so that we can use our open spaces while this blasted virus continues to run it's course.


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