The street shown in the photos below is one of the few streets where cars are permitted in downtown Tübingen, so it often has what passes for a “steady stream of traffic” here in the downtown streets, i.e. 3-4 cars per minute on average. I.e. not much traffic, really. Oddly, though, the day I decided to take this photo, there were no cars in sight. Ah well, you can use your imagination on that front.

Anyway, see the different type of pavement? The woman in the middle of the photo is walking down the “road” part which is really for cars, while the pedestrian part where she’s supposed to be walking is on the left.

Across the street on the right, where those two people are, is the intersection of this street with the street that leads to a churchyard where there’s a farmers market on Saturdays. For the sake of this post, we’ll call the street in the photos “S1”, and the street where the farmers market takes place, “S2”.

So there I was on a recent Saturday, walking down the S1; my goal was to go to the farmers market. Since I was walking in the pedestrian area on the left-hand side of S1, I was going to need to cross S1 in order to get to S2, where the market is. That particular morning, there was a steady stream of cars coming down S1, more than usual, actually. So, as I walked down S1, I knew I was going to have to stop and wait before I could cross over to S2.

But I had a problem  – there were people walking right behind me. And, in a phenomena that seems peculiar to Tübingen in terms of the places I’ve lived, people here will often walk so close behind you that if you stop they will walk right into you.

The first time anyone walked that closely to me, my North American street sense went on alert, and I assumed that the people behind me were up to no good, since they were so close to me. But no, the two little old ladies (that first time) were just so engrossed in their chatting that they didn’t seem to notice that they were close enough behind me that I could almost literally feel them breathing down my neck. Later, when it kept happening, I realized that it wasn’t just those two ladies, but lots of people in Tübingen seem very unconcerned about how close to you they walk.

I’ve been stymied by this behavior more than once.  There’s no sense of what I would call “self-preservation” on the part of a lot of people here when they are walking down the street. If they are walking toward you, they don’t always pay any attention and will walk right into you if you haven’t taken defensive measures. Likewise, if they are right behind you,  and you need to stop or make a sudden turn, you run the risk of having them barge into you from behind.

Which brings me back to that Saturday morning a couple of weeks ago.  So I’m walking down the left-side of street S1, and to make a right-hand turn across S1 to get to S2. However, it’s not going to be simple, since I will have to come to a complete stop, as there is too much traffic to wander directly across the street. Two young women, though, are having an animated conversation just behind me, and they are walking close enough to me as to be almost “drafting” in my wake as we walk — I know if I stop suddenly they will collide with me.

Defensive strategies are in order. One tactic I typically employ is to step to the right or to the left, hoping the people will just keep going straight and pass me by.  However, I’m already next to the wall of the building,  so there’s initially no room  to step to the left. And I can’t step to the right, since there are cars coming down the street on that side, and I don’t want to step in front of a car.

Then I spy a solution: there’s an archway around the entrance in the wall up ahead. Aha! When I get to that, I figure I’ll make a quick step to the left off into that archway, and wait while the women keep going straight and pass by. Perfect.  As soon as I reach the edge of the archway, I make a quick move to the left without turning, so that I’m now walking straight toward at the wall, instead of straight down the street.

And the women do likewise. Uh-oh.  They are still right on my heels, and now we’re all walking toward the wall.

So, I take another quick almost jump to the left to get further into the driveway. I then do a quick spin around to face back toward the street and come to a standstill. I’m so quick with my jump that the women haven’t noticed that I’m no longer in front of them. I manage to turn back towards them just in to see them walking straight into the wall.

OK, well, they didn’t actually walk into the wall – but they nearly did. It was pretty close; they were one step from the wall before they noticed what they were about to do. It all happened so fast, there wasn’t time for me to call out a warning or anything. Bizarre. I wonder if next time they will be more careful when they depend on the total stranger in front of them to navigate a good path.

Now, fortunately, the only danger on the streets here in downtown Tübingen seems to be the risk of getting hit by oncoming pedestrians.  However, with this little adventure,  the tables are turned, as my defensive maneuvers are coming along quite nicely. Unsuspecting people who walking too close behind me, you have been warned. 😉