Mr. Silver, props for this observation. Too true.
I try to always say "On your left" in a polite tone or, equally often, "Coming up behind you," which is long enough to let the passee process the fact that (a) I'm behind them; (b) they need to move; and (c) which direction to move when passing people on a bike, but this hasn't rolled over into the rest of my life.
I do, however, have to squash the urge to signal right or left when walking through the maze of hallways at work. I suspect that hand-signaling would just get weird, uncomprehending looks. Personally, I think it'd work better if everybody DID signal -- avoid all those near-collisions that happen when you try to guess where somebody's going.




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