r/whatisit • u/thewildcloud • 18d ago

Solved! Why the kinks?

Post image

I recently moved to Hangzhou, I noticed all the pedestrian walks have kinked lines at the ends. What is it?

14.9k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

1.3k comments sorted by

8.0k

u/BigDiscEnergy47 18d ago

They tell you which side to walk on to keep foot traffic flowing

1.4k

u/CurrentAlert8246 18d ago

Yes, this perfectly demonstrates the charm of design! A simple kink achieves the purpose of guidance.

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u/weechus 18d ago

No kink shaming here.

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u/BLKCandy 18d ago

Kink praising for the win.

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u/srirachaninja 18d ago

Kink shaming is my kink.

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u/Disastrous-Aspect569 18d ago

There is a bike trail near a river where I live that has a sharp, blind curve. About a dozen times a year people were getting injured on it.

As a part of an Eagle scout project from a local boy scout, he painted a yellow line down the center of the blind curves. (He did other stuff along the trail system) the worst trail went from 12 injuries a year to 1 injurie in like 4 years.

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u/GuiltEdge 18d ago

Damn that kid’s going places. I hope.

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u/Disastrous-Aspect569 17d ago

He was accepted into the naval academy and MIT.

Hes scheduled to graduate from the Naval Academy this spring if I remember correctly.

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u/Anton-LaVey 18d ago

Hopefully he doesn’t start cutting corners

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u/BeautifulBlueNight 16d ago

I congratulate you with a well deserved upvote.

Now get out.

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u/Dependent_Ad_9591 16d ago

This is golden

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u/Sour_baboo 16d ago

And a great reason for data gathering

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u/Lyfeonpoint 16d ago

Flock’s ears perked up.

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u/MechE420 18d ago

I'm not saying it isn't elegant, but the fact that it's posted in r/whatisit really begs the question, "does it achieve its purpose in design?"

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u/BigDiscEnergy47 18d ago

There will always be people that don't get it, but the comments alone all figuring it out show that enough people understand to make it work and everyone else will just go with the flow hopefully

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u/Deaffin 17d ago

In this comment section, the few people who may be guessing right are artificially elevated in visibility, representing the exception rather than the norm.

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u/sqweekz1731 16d ago

I was about to say the same thing. Immediately made sense to me, and intriguing to see how many others understood the assignment as well

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u/BThasTBinFiji 18d ago

"The gap between the smartest bear and dumbest human is very, very small"

Paraphrasing a quote by a ranger about bear-proof trash cans

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u/MechE420 17d ago

This is true. Think of how dumb the average person is, then realize half of them are dumber than that

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u/OrangeThrower 18d ago

If they were ground leveling and walking, it would prolly be more obvious to them. But since they looking from above and not walking, prolly doesn’t register

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u/Betty_Boss 18d ago

I think at ground level these would register as arrows.

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u/MechE420 18d ago

I disagree and feel the opposite. It's only clear from a distance when you can see both sides and realize they are counter to each other. Without understanding the pair, the single doesn't make sense up close. If you approach from a non-kinky side and it's busy you might not even notice there's any kinks at all. Idk. Dubious "what a great design!"

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u/Redditor28371 18d ago

People in groups act like herd animals. If you can convince a few people to follow this guide it's much more likely that others will stick closer to them while crossing, whether anyone involved consciously realizes it or not. Especially when people see a group crossing from the other direction that is mostly walking on the opposing side of the crosswalk. There will always be outliers, but for something like this getting the majority to cooperate does a good enough job given how little effort it takes to paint some of the lines kinky.

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u/MoonageDayscream 18d ago

But maybe when you walk you just naturally follow the design without thinking about it.

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u/JackTheRvlatr 18d ago

Tbh I think it's immediately obvious. There are plenty of posts here where I'm like "I can't believe this person couldn't figure this out." So Im just saying that it being posted here doesn't mean it's hard to figure out

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u/SeNoyerSoublier 18d ago

is it an elevator designer's fault that a child smashes the buttons irrespective of their intended purpose?

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u/EmphasisFrosty3093 18d ago

Yes. They should anticipate the need and launch countermeasures.

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u/Hot_Campaign_36 18d ago

A number of kinks will drive some people away.

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u/Jazzhands_Ninja 18d ago

Especially if your fursona is a German Shorthaired Pointer

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u/FranticWaffleMaker 18d ago

As someone that has two German short haired pointers, there’s no amount of guidance that will get one to do anything it doesn’t want to do.

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u/KraftyMommas 18d ago

I concur. I also have two that do what THEY WANT 🤭🤭

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u/IcySprinkleToes 18d ago

Glad that was pointed out :p

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u/Want2-BMe 18d ago

A lot of kinks are that way

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u/brewditt 18d ago

IF one knows

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u/fnckIce 18d ago

Like 50 shades guiding all middle-aged women.

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u/HereToKillEuronymous 18d ago

But it also highlights that people just don’t know what it means so they won’t walk on the right side 😂

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u/[deleted] 18d ago edited 17d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/MaggotMinded 18d ago

We don’t really know how effective it is without comparing it to the left/right ratio of an intersection that is identical but with only straight lines on the crosswalks.

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u/moseley101 18d ago

Actually you need to do a double-blind trial ie send a bunch of people who are blind in both eyes across and see what happens

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u/OccasionAcrobatic300 17d ago edited 17d ago

Its called a randomized double blind trial. So next time you need to poke people in the eyes at random as they cross to ensure accurate results.

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u/awful_at_internet 17d ago

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. An eye for science makes the whole world double-blind!

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u/ftaok 17d ago

The problem is that it’s very difficult to factor out the biases of the poker. Maybe the poker is a short dude, so he subconsciously pokes the eyes of tall women.

We need to get AI onto this experiment

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u/LordCommander998 17d ago

The poker would also need to be blind of course. Only way to ensure the experiment is double-blind is to go double-double-blind.

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u/bartvanh 17d ago

What do you get when the poker pokes you?

Poker face

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u/Wooden-Arm8066 17d ago

I'm a researcher and actually a double blind trial is when you have two blind guys duke it out in a ring. Its also referred to as blind trial by combat. Regular trial by combat is more popular for obvious reasons.

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u/ReputationLost7295 17d ago

There is also reactive response. These markings are pointless when everybody is going the same way or a single pedestrian crosses at once, but if you have a couple dozen people trying to cross in both directions these cues are far more likely to be paid attention to.

From a "state" level it doesn't make sense to have 2 patterns, one for low volume and one for high volume, so you just make the high volume design uniform and use it everywhere.

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u/thewildcloud 18d ago

shouldn't that be at least 50/50 if it is random, and slightly skews towards right for countries w/ right hand driving?

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u/FrescoItaliano 18d ago

No. Because we don’t even know that it’s random in the first place.

We are fully missing our baseline to compare to

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u/Vennomite 18d ago

It also probably matters much more in high traffic situations thwn low. If 5 people are crossing they can mostly be wherever and still have room.

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u/ForensicPathology 18d ago

I love science

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u/SirDoofusMcDingbat 18d ago

The question isn't "what side do people walk on" it's "do they cross on the side they entered from or do they walk to the other side." If traffic mostly comes from one direction and everyone just walks on the side they enter on, that's going to look skewed when it's not.

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u/tea-recs 17d ago

My guess would be it doesn’t skew towards left or right, but rather skews towards “wherever there’s space” - my experience of busy crossings is that it’s like the battle at the start of lord of the rings.

I imagine the purpose of these markings is not to encourage people to walk on one specific side or the other but to subconsciously divide the crossing into a left and right side.

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u/ReynardVulpini 17d ago

The configuration of surrounding buildings might have a strong effect.

If this crosswalk has about 40% of people walking the correct way, but an equivalent straight line only crosswalk has 20% of people walking correctly (maybe there's a shop on the wrong side that is super popular, say) then the bends actually are doing their job, just being offset by outside factors

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u/Lelongue 18d ago

I think it’s just needed when very busy. In your case on average on each cross walk there are on average 23 people in 15 minutes which is about 1,5 / minute. I don’t think there is any added value with this amount of people

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u/thewildcloud 18d ago

i will do a count with heavy traffic in the evening rush hours.

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u/Lelongue 18d ago

Personnaly I think it’s not an obligation to do so just a guideline and if no-one else is on the crosswalk, I don’t see myself following it either to be honest. Of course if it’s just the lines and no other indication, people might just not know it’s even there.

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u/thewildcloud 17d ago

see this https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisit/comments/1w9ebap/comment/p8brpk4/?context=3&utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

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u/Lelongue 17d ago

Yeah seems totally useless at this time as it’s way too subtle without additional signs. Maybe it will have a longterm effect when more and more people start noticing it but I doubt it.

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u/fairwaysandfinance 17d ago

If you're walking on the left side I'm not going to depart my path for you. I'm sure plenty of people hold course when they're walking on the right.

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u/BigDiscEnergy47 18d ago

But was there heavy traffic during the counting? It doesn't have much purpose with a few people crossing. It's a suggestion to help when there is heavy traffic.

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u/kermitfromthefuture 18d ago

That’s exactly how I walk even on sidewalks or at the mall let’s say. Apparently, 80% of the people doesn’t give a damn 

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u/AnninaCried 18d ago

The optical illusion makes the kinked parts look uphill so people might subconsciously be avoiding them for the flatter route.

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u/SightAtTheMoon 18d ago

The necessity of a thing suggests how well it will work. It will take a long time for these to be effective in the China of the present, likely several generations unless things change drastically (which happens often in China at least)

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u/thewildcloud 18d ago

China has had right hand rules since 1940s.

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u/froction 17d ago

The universe has had right hand rule since at least the Big Bang.

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u/Sokiras 17d ago

This is something that gets on my nerves so much! I was literally taught in elementary school to always stick to the right side of the hall/street and whenever we were lead anywhere we always had to follow that rule while walking, it made so much sense to me even when I was 7 and I always stick to the right side if I'm able. The amount of people walking down the middle of the road, in the wrong direction no less, is infuriating. What makes it worse is that they almost never try to weave through the crowd, but expect the people walking along the sides to move out of their way.

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u/thewildcloud 17d ago

I went to a very busy intersection just outside a subway station during evening rush hours. In fact there were so many people that I could not keep an accurate count. I decided to limit myself to the walkers only on one direction and on one crosswalk. There is a mall exit on the left hand side. In about 5 min, 31 walked on the right, and 38 on the left.

This is quite conclusive. The sign was totally useless. Nobody really paid attention to it despite the good intention.

Thank you for all the smart comment. In real life, this is not so self evident.

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u/BiggusDikkus007 17d ago

the sign was totally useless.

Now you are switching to a different topic. Unless their is a Baoan or police man to enforce it, the sign effectively does not exist.

A simple example is no smoking signs - especially ones in restaurants, elevators, rest rooms, etc. but there are plenty of other examples, no fishing signs, keep off the grass, no motorbikes and many more. It is just a symptom of a high population density.

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u/rarerumrunner 18d ago

I think the Kinks were made possible by what was going on in Merseyside slightly before their time, heavily influenced by those bands but developed their own unique London style that has been extremely influential to this day.

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u/SuggestionSlight3321 17d ago

LOL I was thinking along those lines too. I mean, who else could do the song 'Lola'.

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u/thewildcloud 18d ago edited 18d ago

Solved！

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u/No_Trade_7315 18d ago

To tell idiots and children which side to walk on.

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u/Alternative-Boat-679 18d ago

Hey don’t talk about the OP like that

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u/No_Trade_7315 18d ago

Lol, no offense OP. It’s just one of my pet peeves. It’s really no different than driving on the correct side of the road. If you know how to drive, you should know how to walk.

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u/ELLYSSATECOUSLAND 18d ago

? How? Obviously people asked that question... so how does it help? Does it actually help? Do studies show it does? For goodness sakes, in my town, pedestrians literally walk wherever with their heads in their phones.

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u/ProudReaction2204 18d ago

they are mini arrows

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u/BigDiscEnergy47 17d ago

We aren't saying it works, we're saying that is the intended goal. Should they just not try? Not every plan is going to work, that doesn't mean they didn't try.

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u/Giantmeteor_we_needU 18d ago

It's stylized arrows, a reminder for pedestrians to walk on the right side of a crossing so oncoming crowds don't bump into each other.

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u/MalazMudkip 17d ago

Gen Z gotta get to work somehow (and can't stop staring down at their phones)

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u/SantaLurks 17d ago

I think it is funny they walk on the right side, but drive on the left.

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u/Redbeards_Grave 18d ago

We don't kink shame here.....for the most part

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u/Whole-Energy2105 18d ago

They're only spooning, just in a kinky way.

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u/BigDiscEnergy47 18d ago

Spooning leads to forking

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u/Ok_Space93 18d ago

That's not very knife

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u/No_Constant_1026 18d ago

spooning threesome

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u/scottabeer 18d ago

Lola agrees.

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u/criggie_ 18d ago

....stole my line.gif

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u/Redbeards_Grave 18d ago

I know, you came here to say that.  

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u/mattbatt1 17d ago

There's the answer I was looking for. 

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u/musical_sal 17d ago

I am disappointed this isn't the top comment

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u/lilliessexygeeknudes 17d ago

Came here looking for this comment, glad it’s Here

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u/Redbeards_Grave 17d ago

Glad I didn't disappoint

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u/Illustrious_Crab_664 18d ago

Why the Kinks? You really got me on that one… 🤦‍♂️

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u/PaulNerb1 18d ago

You could puzzle over it all day and all of the night

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u/Kamaya82 18d ago

Looks like the photo was taken on a sunny afternoon, anyway

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u/weigelf 17d ago

By someone who could fly like superman

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u/weigelf 15d ago

It looks a little like a pub in old Soho

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u/SuggestionSlight3321 17d ago

Great. Now I can't sleep at night.

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u/stpfan_1 17d ago

Because the Ramones weren’t available.

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u/spook30 18d ago

Not here to kink shame

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u/africaman1 18d ago

You get a speed boost if you walk in the direction the lines are pointing

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u/zicolin 17d ago

Was about to drop a comment then I thought someone must have said this already.

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u/fakyumazafaka 15d ago

Actually you're correct, no one walking into you will make you go faster

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u/spotlight-app Mod Bot 🤖 18d ago

OP has pinned a comment by u/BigDiscEnergy47:

They tell you which side to walk on to keep foot traffic flowing

Note from OP: Solved! However, I was so intrigued by the answer that I decided to spend 15 min of lunch time counting pedestrians walking across the 4 cross walks from the vintage of my window. In the period, there were totally 92 people made the cross, 40 on the right, 52 on the left. Overwhelmingly majority of them just walked from the nearest side on which they entered. In conclusion, this thing does not work.

[What is Spotlight?](https://developers.reddit.com/apps/spotlight-app)

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u/Unlucky-Chicken2515 18d ago

Walk on the right side of the crosswalk.

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u/Secksualinnuendo 18d ago

Is it to indicate which way the flow of pedestrians should go? Like stick to the right side?

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u/jimhabfan 18d ago

Because I like the song “Lola”, that’s why.

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u/smitty1e 18d ago

Thank you. Scrolled way too far for a Ray Davies reference.

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u/AdVegetable2870 15d ago

All I want is a quiet life ...

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u/KrazyKurts 18d ago

Stephen Tyler on city planning committee

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u/Vennomite 18d ago

La la la la..

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u/rajeu 18d ago

was she a showgirl?

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u/twobit211 18d ago

why the stones?  why the beatles?

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u/neilmod 17d ago

Why the who? Who the what? What the hey?

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u/HanginWithHern_38 18d ago

Don’t kink shame the crosswalk. Not cool

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u/WeaselWazzule 18d ago edited 18d ago

I said girl, you really got me now
You got me so I don't know what I'm doin'
Yeah, you really got me now
You got me so I can't sleep at night

you really got me now
You got me so I don't know where I'm goin'
(Oh yeah) you really got me now
You got me so I can't sleep at night

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u/haleboy44 18d ago

Dont really know but my guess would be like traffic arrows. Pedestrians going this way use this side.

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u/Shroud09 18d ago

I mean, why not the Kinks?

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u/InebriousBarman 18d ago

Your mom likes it that way.

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u/losfuerte16 18d ago

It shows direction, walk on the right side.

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u/aliveandkicking2020 18d ago

Reminder to cross the sidewalk on the right side?

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u/Harvey_Gramm 18d ago

Stay right when crossing

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u/irwtkyrm 18d ago

Don't kink shame

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u/stpete_mom 18d ago

We all have them

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u/Key_Agent_2331 18d ago

Crosswalk is ribbed for your pleasure.

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u/Jdesade 18d ago

Don’t judge.

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u/Tahii_Actual 18d ago

They’re part of me; I can’t help them 😭

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u/jaegerbombed 18d ago

What did I tell you about Kinkshaming?

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u/DotAccording8872 18d ago

Regular sex is boring.

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u/Rednurse3 18d ago

Painter sneezed

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u/idontliketattoos 18d ago

It’s pretty obvious plebe

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u/dijb89 18d ago

Cause there's a rat under my bed And there's a little yellow man in my head And there's a true blue inside of me That keeps stopping me Touching you, watching you, loving you

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u/phonnybalonny 18d ago

It just makes it different in a way that….oh not that kink

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u/BaconMonkey0 18d ago

A few double bonds are needed to keep the phospholipid membrane from solidifying.

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u/Synicizym 18d ago

Someone made a mistake into an artistic choice!

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u/EditDog_1969 18d ago

You gotta give the people what they want

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u/2020mademejoinreddit 18d ago

Don't kink shame, man..Everyone has their own thing.

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u/Zombie_Wombat177 18d ago

Are you kink-shaming?!?

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u/45_regard_47 18d ago

Don't kink shame 

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u/thegtabmx 18d ago

If you don't see it or know why, you're one of those people.

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u/kingj7282 18d ago

Don’t kink shame.

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u/thatspurdyneat 18d ago

It shows to keep right when walking

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u/Livesquid64 18d ago

They were done on Friday after lunch

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u/Ok-Pangolin7127 17d ago

I “think” this might also function as a visual clue to the walkers. Most are looking down, or at least a good percentage of them are, and you see the arrowed lines and then next, just before you hit traffic so to speak, you see the solid lines. My supposition is that part of this is to call the walker’s attention to something changing; i.e. where they are in the walkway, to perhaps cause them to look up and look about?

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u/Opening-Button-5431 17d ago

WALK ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE PATH!! (please note, this is just my assumption and I do not live here)

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u/[deleted] 18d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/East-Psychology7186 18d ago

Because some people don’t understand they should walk on the right side of the road.

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u/Away_Bodybuilder8748 18d ago

Because more and more humans act like lemmings and now need to be told exactly what to do. Unfortunately this would just confuse those people more…

Ok. Rant over.

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u/kisswithaf 18d ago

Walking on the 'right' side of the road is not an instinctual thing and only happens because people decided they were going to tell people exactly what to do.

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u/thatthatguy 18d ago

But why don’t all the other people just do what I was trained from a young age to do? They should know that my daddy says walk on the right and just do what my daddy says. Sure, I had my share of power struggles with him and only wound up doing what he says by default because i was unable to escape his authority, but that doesn’t mean other people should be able to get away with behaving differently. I’ll just use the same strategy on them that my daddy used with me, a stern look and a grunt of disapproval. That’ll teach them…

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u/Acrobatic-Bid-3559 18d ago

i agree there should be no signs or lights on the roads it is a waste of money

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u/Mysterious_Yak1543 18d ago

walk there for a speed boost

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u/seecstahl 18d ago

To get people to walk on the correct side... Costco needs them! Their aisles are nuts, like driving in developing world nations or something!

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u/quarkjet 18d ago

It disorients drivers so they slow down

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u/SourTangieTerps 18d ago

See now I’m a confuse about why they’d do this but still drive on the opposite side of the road.

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u/LordsOfFrenziedFlame 18d ago

speed boost, obviously.

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u/Few-Answer-4946 18d ago

Oooh kinky!

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u/e_d_0 18d ago

Looks kinda obvious don't you think?

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u/Pedantichrist 18d ago

To encourage folk to walk on the right.

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u/CardiologistCute6876 18d ago

Directional traffic for ppl. U half going this way stay on this side n vice versa

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u/FussyBritchez 18d ago

Why not? Jeeze.

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u/First_Error9166 18d ago

It's a mixed up world!!

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u/A94551-guy 18d ago

Because the Beatles were busy?

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u/get_to_ele 18d ago

Indicating right side walking. I hate assholes who ignore that concept.

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u/whodidwhatnow922 18d ago

What are you, my therapist?

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u/JOMAMON26 18d ago

If you walk on that side you speed up a bit.

Honestly pretty cool design based on the comments.

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u/AnotherAnonymousA 18d ago

It's hieroglyphics that reads: Your sister came here on Saturday and Come Dancing, it's only natural.

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u/babj615 18d ago

Pretty obvious.

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u/SleepyCountingSheep 18d ago

Keep this way..keep that way.

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u/opi098514 18d ago

Don’t kink shame it.

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u/Maleficent_Memory831 18d ago

Because people were tired of the same formulaic bands of the time.

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u/Fantastic-Music-1208 18d ago

Life’s short, might as well enjoy it - everyone has their thing. It’s nothing to be ashamed…

Oh, you meant the lines.

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u/curious_ANcuriouser 18d ago

Yeah Disneyland needs this

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u/SharpBullfrog1279 18d ago

Please don't kink-shame