Elevator Etiquette

Everyday, unless I am ambitious and decide to hike up the stairs, I take an elevator up to the floor where I work. And everyday pretty much the same scenario plays out. The elevator is packed when everybody files in on the first floor. The crowd in the elevator slowly dwindles as the people get off on the ascending floors. Then begins the elevator shuffle. As people leave the elevator, the passengers remaining work to rearrange themselves as to be at the farthest equidistant position from all other people in the elevator. For example, if there were four people left they would probably all be standing in one of the four corners. I like to quietly observe how often this shuffle happens and it is almost constant. This morning all the other passengers had emptied except myself and a gentleman. This gentleman had been behind me for the whole elevator ride up to this point, but as everyone else left he moved to the opposite wall. But the kicker is that he got off at the next floor. So I guess it was just too unbearable for him to ride that close to me for one more second. Boy that would have been really awkward! So my question is, "Why do we as Americans feel the need to always have space?" I mean really, would it be all that awkward to ride a foot or two away from another human being for one elevator floor or do we just make it more awkward than it actually is? Maybe its just that living overseas for a while has given me a different perspective. I've rode buses overseas where it was so crowded that I wasn't sure if the leg I scratched was really mine! You really don't have personal space, the buses were so crowded at times that the doors would barely shut. Seriously! And even when the buses emptied out, there was no silly dancing around to find a spot farther away from everyone else. I'm certainly not saying that personal space is a bad thing, but sometimes I think we can be a little extreme about it. I think when I get on the elevator next time and there is only a person or two, I will stand as close to them as possible. (Well, maybe not. I'd probably be sued for harassment or something, but it would be pretty funny! )