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Argos Argos

City residents all over the world have long dreamed of a way to nudge rubbernecking tourists and other slow pokes to the side of the sidewalk. Liverpool in England has made that wish come true—at least for a short while. Retailer Argos has installed “Fast Track” pedestrian lanes near a shopping complex for a trial, er, run; The Daily Mail walks us through the details:

Argos has painted new markings on the pavement outside its Liverpool store after research revealed almost half the nation found the slow pace of high streets to be their biggest shopping bugbear. The new lane, being trialled this week in the Liverpool One shopping complex, hopes to help pick up the pace for those who are hurrying by bypassing the crowds. New statistics show 31 per cent of people find pavement hoggers frustrating, while more than a quarter (27 per cent) get annoyed by dawdling pedestrians.

The marketing stunt, however brief, is bound to make all sorts of fast-walking cities jealous. New Yorkers, in particular, have tried many times in many ways to enforce proper sidewalk etiquette—from issuing pedestrian penalty cards that ding you for “carefree sauntering” to proposing ordinances that would require sidewalk training sessions to spray-painting walkways with “Tourists” and “New Yorkers” lanes. And yet the problem persists.

Godspeedy sidewalks, Liverpool. The world is watching.