TobyBartels comments on Procedural Knowledge Gaps - Less Wrong
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As I live in Germany I have experience with such rule sets. People don't follow them and instead do whatever they consider to be the obvious thing to do.
Our public transport system has for example the rule that you should stand on the right side of an escalator if you choose to stand.
If you choose to walk the escalator you take the left side.
It's a smart rule and it would be in the public interest if everyone would abide by it. It would make life easier for those who choose who walk the escalator. Normal people however don't care and simple stand wherever they want to stand.
Introducing a formal rule set when people are used to following informal rules is hard.
That's too bad. Large airports in the United States have (flat) automated walkways with a similar rule, and people follow it. Very handy!
There's regional variation-- I'm told that in DC, people follow escalator "slow on the right, fast on the left" etiquette. In Philadelphia, it's pretty random.