HI,
I don't know if this sounds in any way familiar ot anyone, but I keep bumping into people on the street. Wherever I go, people seem to stop right after they enter a shop, or at the top of a flight of stairs in the Metro. Without apparently paying attention to the 100 or so people right behind them who are in a hurry to catch their connection!
Or the people in the big department stores who think the best place to decide where to shop next is at the bottom and the top of the escalators!
And then I am not neven mentioning the hordes of people on the sidewalks who just do not seem to notice me approaching. Am I invisible???
At first I thought I was imagining things, but I only have it here in Lausanne. I asked some fellow foreigners, and they have the exact same experience!
Anyone else familiar with this, and does anyone have any 'tactics' to avoid it? It sometimes really drives me to the point of wanting to slap the next person who gets in my way, and I would like to remain friendly...

The French do that a lot.

Actually, I've been to France for a week last month, and was deliberately paying attention to it; they don't! It seems really Swiss (or at least Vaudois...)

I lived in Lille in the north of France for more than three years and noticed it a lot. You have to "pardonne" and squeeze your way through in a lot of places, especially supermarkets. Anywhere a passageway narrows, they gather there to block it, as if by instinct.

..........and as for the skilift queues

I think that it is as bad, if not worse, in the UK.

In supermarkets there seems to be a new pastime of wandering round using a mobile phone to confirm the shopping with their partner/family and being oblivious to the other shoppers. Another one is blocking the aisles with trolleys when meeting friends in the supermarket.

Maybe it's the layout of the shops or streets, with many narrow passages and staircases often close to exits and entrances?
It's just that i've never noticed it before in other countries, and I thought that since i am a big guy they would at least see me...
My latest tactic is to try and avoid eye contact and totally pretend you don't see them. Strangely enough this seems to work better than to try and be polite and move out of the way.

I think I might be immune to it... I'm used to shopping on Oxfordstreet in London and I guess, I've trained myself to anticipate what others are going to do, then if I do end up bumping into them a simple "tschuldigung" (in the Swissgerman speaking parts) and I carry on.

I also know that when I'm just meandering about I don't really pay attention to whether or not I block someones path... I kinda figure that everyone is responsible for looking where they are going and not to guess where I want to go...

But, I shall now go and test this today and see what the crowds are like in Zürich

Swiss Spatial Awareness
Your questions on Switzerland: ask the Swiss guy
Swiss Manners
Rude Swissie Awards

etc.

I'm Swiss and never noticed it. Maybe I'm one of those who bumps all foreigners out of his way.

I've noticed it a lot, especially since I've just come back from 2 weeks in the States. Are they rude or just oblivious to their actions and their surroundings? I don't care, I either ignore them or shove them out of the way mumbling "excuse me" in English. It's not limited to Zurich city either. Even on the wide trails around Greifensee 2 or 3 people can block the entire width of the path with zero consideration to other runners / walkers that might want to pass.

You can take the Swissie out of the village, but you can't take the village out of the Swissie.

(I will get soooo groaned for this ...)

I just ignore it although sometimes I get a little pissed when I have to say "excusez-moi" or "pardon" more than twice because the person in front is deaf and/or blind, and mind you, he/she isn't old. =.=

The worst is when you are trying to maneuver a toddler in a stroller and a small child up or down the escalator and they block the exits with mini-family reunions or discoveries of long lost friends. Annoying enough when I am alone. Can't they go to a cafe for a coffee or something? But I don't think this is limited to the Swiss. Although, I do notice more of it here. Perhaps its because I use the escalators here more as the lifts are normally too hard to find or too long of a wait.

Oh well,
At least it is not just me then, who notices it...
For a while I thought I was getting paranoia .
It will just take some getting used to, I assume.

I've moved from Cambridge UK to Geneva, and certainly noticed that many more people here seem to be oblivious to your intentions when walking around in public. Personally, if I see someone walking in an obviously straight line then I don't walk directly in front of them, but many (in my experience particularly Caucasian middle-aged females, who I general assume to be Swiss) seem to do just that. Depending on mood I either do a little dance to get round and chuckle to myself, do the same but glare and mutter, or just continue and if it results in a bump then so be it.

I'm sure it is not only a Swiss thing, but it seems to be mentioned often enough on here (thanks Nathu!) that it must be more common than in many other places where English-speaking expats come from...

This has been discussed ad nauseam.

Simply put.

The swiss are the most individualistic society in Europe. The standard person here only care and think about him/her-self.

Hence they don't pay special attention to anyone else unless the other person contibutes in something to his/her own satisfaction.

As everyone is the same, they don't see that as a bad or weird thing, it is just the way it is.

Instead of having seventeen threads with the same "Why oh why?" questions, perhaps we could use the original ones as Nathu so patiently links to, above

("Open your Freakin eyes!" as one American lady yelled to a careening shopper in Coop recently )

True, but once a new thread has been started wouldn't that be the job of a moderator to merge the threads if they felt it necessary, and given Nathu clearly decided not to do this...?

Well, to merge threads is very important in the Help & Tips section. In Complaints Corner a little less. The top 10 complaints are evergreens and the area probably could be merged to half its size, but in this case it probably wouldn't improve the forum readability.

Aaah, nothing like a bit of WalMart psychoanalysis.

The counterquestion is, how do the complainers deal with situations where the probability of bumping is much higher than in the streets? Is it considered acceptable or does it get noticed less? Or do these users never go to concerts, discos, football games etc.?