. 465.

[47] 23 Penn. St. 196.

It is clear that the statute law of the road in this State is not
applicable to people on horseback, as it is expressly limited to
carriages or other vehicles, and therefore equestrians are amenable
only to the common law of the land. By this law they are required to
ride on the public ways with due care and precaution, and to
exercise reasonably good judgment on every occasion, under all the
attendant circumstances. When they meet wagons, whether heavily
loaded or not, they ought to yield as much of the road as they can
conveniently,--certainly more than half, as they do not need that
much of the road to pass conveniently,--but when they meet a vehicle
in the form of a bicycle there seems to be no good reason why they
should yield more than half the road. For the convenience of
themselves and the public at large, on meeting vehicles or each
other, they ought to pass to the right, as by adopting the statute
law of the road in this respect order is promoted and confusion
avoided.

A public thoroughfare is a way for foot-passengers as well as
carriages, and a person has a right to walk on the carriage-way if
he pleases; but, as Chief Justice Denman once remarked, "he had
better not, especially at night, when carriages are passing
along."[48] However, all persons have an undoubted right to walk on
the beaten track of a road, if it has no sidewalk, even if infirm
with age or disease, and are entitled to the exercise of reasonable
care on the part of persons driving vehicles along it. If there is a
sidewalk which is in bad condition, or obstructed by merchandise or
otherwise, then the foot-passenger has a right to walk on the road
if he pleases. But it should be borne in mind that what is proper on
a country road might not be in the crowded streets of a city. In law
every one is bound to regulate his conduct to meet the situations in
which he is placed, and the circumstances around him at the time. A
person infirm with age or disease or afflicted with poor eyesight
should always take extraordinary precaution in walking upon the
road.[49] Thus, a man who traverses a crowded thoroughfare with edged
tools or bars of iron must take especial care that he does not cut
or bruise others with the things he carries. Such a person would be
bound to keep a better lookout than the man who merely carried an
umbrella; and the man who carried an umbrella would be bound to take
more care when walkin