In Dublin, I think it's considered, if not rude, at least not the height of courtesy, to use an umbrella in dense areas where you will be bumping in to people and essentially pushing your water on to them.
However, my feeling is that the real lunacy here is having very narrow pavements (sidewalks) carrying dozens or hundreds of people while having streets, which might be carrying ten or twenty people along the same stretch of road in taxis (which most cars are in Dublin city centre on a weekday morning), get 8-10x as much space. (I am much more sympathetic to buses).
The same crowded street problem happens where I live in NYC, but it generally works out as people get into a rhythm of either raising their umbrella up over the level of the other person's umbrella or lowering it down below the level of the other person's umbrella.
But then in NYC you develop a much closer "personal bubble" when you have to endure being crammed onto the train like a sardine during rush hour, so in comparison a little umbrella bumping is barely noticeable.
Screw the personal bubble, I'd prefer it if short people would avoid stabbing me in the head with the ribs of their umbrella. If you can't lift your umbrella high enough to go over the tallest person in the crowd, you should buy a rain coat instead.
I think the other guy was right, I'm being very selfish. It's really my fault that my glasses have been scratched by the ferrules on the ends of umbrellas.
Funny cuz in Tokyo everyone uses an umbrella, the reasoning I heard from a co-worker being if everyone else rain jackets the trains would be a mucky mess
And there, you've got hundreds of African men yelling "kasa kasa!" any time a sprinkle starts, selling super-cheap 500 yen umbrellas. It was odd to see, when I visited a few years ago.
Hah, yes! Theres nothing more annoying than someone sauntering along with their umbrella held low in a crowd. They rarely even apologise after smacking you somewhere with it.</rant> ;)
as a tall person walking around in NYC during the rain can be somewhat dangerous. Thankfully I wear glasses so there's one level of protection but people are generally selfish and self-absorbed. They'd rather keep their umbrella low and not get a few drops of rain on them rather than avoid hitting your face.
However, my feeling is that the real lunacy here is having very narrow pavements (sidewalks) carrying dozens or hundreds of people while having streets, which might be carrying ten or twenty people along the same stretch of road in taxis (which most cars are in Dublin city centre on a weekday morning), get 8-10x as much space. (I am much more sympathetic to buses).