The 'LSE-101' Curriculum:
Pool Etiquette Overview
General Awareness
Entering the Pool
Passing & Being Passed
Common Sense

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My other projects: 
Financing the swim habit
Endurance fun on land

Other Resources:
Bill Haverland's incredible Swimmers Guide Online - the most comprehensive listing of lap-friendly swimming pools all over the world.

All swimmers should...

Keep toenails and fingernails closely trimmed and not wear a watch or protruding jewelry.  These items can easily scratch other swimmers in a busy pool.  Don't believe it?  I'm not the only one who can show you scars to prove it.  Those needing to know their splits should look at the pace clock.  Those worried about the possible theft of valuable jewelry from pool lockers should leave those items at home - or pick a safer pool.

Be aware of how ‘wide’ stroke mechanics may impact adjacent swimmers.  Some peoples' wild backstroke and butterfly arm strokes can hit swimmers in other lanes, as can an over-wide breaststroke kick.

Carefully check for the position and speed of other swimmers before diving or jumping into a lane, or entering a lane from the side (i.e. under water).  At many pools, diving is absolutely prohibited, as is any crossing of active lap lanes for any reason - safety precautions that are difficult to disagree with.  People routinely over-estimate their ability to see and gauge the depth and speed of objects in the water, as well as the ability of swimmers to see them.  One of the most dangerous places for a lap swimmer is immediately after a flip turn, when other uninformed swimmers may assume the path is clear for them to jump in or cross the lane.  In reality, this is the point when the lap swimmer is moving fastest (having just pushed off the wall), and has the least visibility of any time during his/her lap.

Don’t ‘water-run’ or ‘aqua-jog’ in lap lanes—unless the pool is nearly empty.  While both activities are valid forms of exercise that need to be respected and provisioned-for, they are inappropriate for lap lanes.  Aqua-jogging in a lap lane effectively reduces the capacity of that lane to just two individuals (one swimming up and down one side, and one aqua-jogging on the other).  This is an extremely poor use of scarce pool "real-estate".  At least half a dozen aqua-joggers could easily be accommodated in a single, special lane designated for that purpose, (twice that in a 50M pool, or one with an extended deep end).

Respect the ‘toys’ of other swimmers.  This should be self-explanatory to anyone who received a passing grade in kindergarten, but unfortunately it bears repeating with some adults.  Simply put, no swimmer should ever swipe kickboards, fins, hand paddles, pull buoys or other 'devices' positioned at the end of a lap lane unless they first obtain the explicit permission of the person who brought it over to the side of the pool.  (Whether the device is pool property or private property is absolutely irrelevant in this case).   Just because another swimmer isn't doing something with that device at the moment doesn't mean that s/he doesn't have plans to incorporate it into his/her workout in just a few minutes - or seconds.  "Borrowing" something may force a fellow swimmer to interrupt his or her routine, get out of the pool to find a replacement, and in the process lose their position in that lane.  As a tactic to win better position lane position for oneself, this kind of behavior is juvenile and underhanded in the extreme.