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I love visiting Japan, where everyone is super aware and would never do this. It’s amazing the difference in cultures.

• bschwindHN 8y ago
  No no no no, people are absolutely _not_ super aware here. Sure they might mostly stay on one side on the escalator, but that's where it ends.
  • psychomugs 8y ago
    I was about to say this too, as I've found that phone-gazing while walking is super prevalent compared to anywhere else I've been to. There's even research into using robots to try to get people to stop doing it [1]. At least they're more likely to apologize when they bump into you compared to other places. [1] https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8673017 https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8673017
  • animal531 8y ago
    You're not really supposed to stand on one side on an escalator. In certain places it became the social norm, but when long escalators are loaded up it leads to a majority of the weight being on one side which in turn leads to more critical breakdowns where all the passengers are dumped to the bottom. Ideally everyone should just stand in the middle.
    • bschwindHN 8y ago
      Unfortunately you just can't do that in Japan, it is pretty universal (though Kansai stands on the right, and Kanto stands on the left). In extremely congested areas people will stand on both sides, but the convention is to stand on one side and have a "fast lane" on the other side. I realize it has less throughput, and puts more strain on the escalators, but that's not changing any time soon. The point is, escalators and perhaps train boarding are the only two times where people will be mostly self aware of their position. Walking on the sidewalks is not one of those times, everyone is staring at their phones, or walking in groups of 2-3 across.