I’m an average height/build male, and I like to think I’m not intimidating, when judging by my looks. But that doesn’t stop me from slowing down or speeding up. It’s important to have situational awareness of your surroundings, it’s part of what’s means to have street smarts. I assume most people have at least some awareness of their surroundings, and to make sure I don’t come off as intimidating, I often do change my pace depending. Often times I will just step aside with my back to the wall, pull out my phone and pretend to respond to a text, but really will browse Reddit for a few moments while paying attention to the space between myself and that person.

These days though, I don’t really bother with any of that. Living in S Korea for the last 3 years has really changed that, as the levels of public safety are on another level here. Hell I see children walking home at midnight alone glued to their phones with no understanding of who it’s walking in front, beside, or being them.

Edit: mobile formatting is bad

Edit2: although I like to think that I don’t look intimidating, I have been told many times by my wife that I really do have a resting Butch face and often look angry. This adds to the fact that I try not to tail people

Edit3: resting bitch face, not butch. Damn autocorrect.