Idotiic pedestrians

ok, running to and from work sounds like a good way to get some runs in and commute at the same time, but just try doing it in central London.

on recent experiments, i've faced idiotic groups of lads trying to throw me off stride; dim-witted family groups walking 5-abreast, then not getting out of the way and forcing me on to the road; and numerous groups of people at bus stops with absolutely no spatial awareness or idea that people might be coming towards them. and don't even get me started on the text-while-you-walkers...frankly it's just not worth it

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Comments

  • how dare they actually walk on the pavement.the cheek of it........they of course should go off their own walk and make way for the great and mighty runner........as he is so much worthy of the pavement as he can run

  • seren nos wrote (see)

    how dare they actually walk on the pavement.the cheek of it........they of course should go off their own walk and make way for the great and mighty runner........as he is so much worthy of the pavement as he can run

    Erm, five people walking abreast taking up the entire width of the pavement...  Whether the single person coming the other way is running, walking or whatever, it's simple common sense, let alone courtesy, for any one of them to move over a few inches so that everyone has room to use the pavement.  The fact that this doesn't even occur to people when they can see someone coming in the other direction from a hundred yards off does my fucking nut in all the time.

    (When someone does move over, a polite acknowledgement doesn't go amiss, but that's beside the point.)

  • ML84ML84 ✭✭✭
    Nail on the head PhilPub.
  • I had a similar problem with a bunch of idiots in one of our local parks not long ago.  There must have been about 20 of them, occupying the entire path - three or four abreast and six or seven deep.  None of them moved to let me by - I was running towards them.  Fekkin' local running club.

  • On my recent experiements running along a canal path I rarely meet a single soul, opps...sorry that isn't helping! image

  • run off road over the mountains.hardly ever run into someone..............if i was walking down the pavement keeping an eye on 3 or 4 children i would not be ready for runners.......

    with walkers you have time to see them coming and start the routine of getting the kids into a straight line for them to pass..runners are too fast to give you that timeimage

  • baldbloke wrote (see)

    idotiic

    I lolled.  You seem a little upset friend.

  • It's probably not so much runner vs pedestrian as Central London. You're going to get crowds on the pavements and they're going to get in your way even if they are paying attention. Sheer numbers.

    Give it up and find a park or an embankment. I wish it wasn't so, but this is one you can't win.

  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭

    What I hate is when you're approaching a walker from behind down a narrow road.

    They generally hear your presence and turn around and you think, they'll obviously make sure we don't collide.

    However they then don't move.

    Where do they think you were going to go in those few seconds of time?

  • By and large i just move to the road. For every ten walkers, there is probably seven that will move, and three that wont. I guess i can live with those odds. Running is very therapeutic for me, its my me time, and not my stress time. If i get het up about peoples behaviour, i would probably have to quit running, since it would become like driving, and more a chore. I am still waiting for the moment i go crashing into a car, as it pulls out a driveway.

  • Intermanaut has fair point about running clubs...although at last weeks club run in central london, we tried to introduce a no-more-than-3-abreast rule after a series of incidents involving the gigantic 7.30m/m pace group wreaking havoc as they storm down Constitution Hill...

  • It's not just a london problem, its everywhere.  And it drives me nuts when people will not move over when you are walking the other way let alone running. I always seem to have to go onto the road or verge. image

  • And cyclists who are on the pavement that is not a cycle path. At this time of the year they go on the pavements as they havent got any lights on so think its too dangerous for them to be on the road. I will often play chicken with these morons and, fortunately, I have won on each occassion. As we get closer I stare them out, shake my head and I will start shouting that they are feckin morons and too get off the feckin pavement.  

    There are also the cars that park half on the pavement. Sometimes you can see the owners chatting in the garden of the house they are visiting so I will deliberatly bang in to their wing mirrors which will make a loudish noise so the driver can hear. If they say anything to me I just point out that they are parked illegally and ask them if they would like me to ring the police on their behalf so that they can report the incident.

    As ghostrider says, there are also the idiots who reverse out of their driveways. I will deliberatly bang or kick their car which causes them to stop and get out. I will happily disucss the situation with them and when I tell them I was fearing for my safety because of their illegal manouvre they seem to be ok with that.

    Not an ideal approach by me but these idiots do my head in.

    W#nkers

  • I got really annoyed when I was pedestrianising the other day because this baldbloke barrelled into me while I was texting and then told me to go forth and multiply. Sod.

  • Peter - you should have had you ipod on then you wouldn't have heard him either..image

  • I'll get in my car and run him down next time.

  • It's commonly known that that a minority of militant and inconsiderate cyclists give all cyclists a bad name.

    It seems that the same is true of runners.

    Chill.

     

    edit... this post doens't refer to the one immediately above it...  that was a cross posting!

  • By the way, Carter, I have the number of a great anger management specialist.

  • It's not the people who genuinely don't hear me coming or are not paying attention and practically walk into me that bother me the most, it's the ones that deliberately get in my way.

    Some people seem to have a real problem with runners and will do as much as possible to obstruct us, more than they would do for a pedestrian. I've had people walking towards me 4 abreast on a narrow bit of pavement, I edged over to one side to give them room to pass and one of them deliberately moved into my way. So I ran straight at him, that made him move image Also had a cantankerous old git telling his wife to "move over a bit, she can go in the road if she wants to run". I didn't run into her but I did slow down as I passed and say "thanks for being so considerate, would you have called an ambulance if I got hit by a bus after you forced me into the road?".

    No wonder runner's always "find" the bodies image

  • What drives me mad, and not even when I am running, is when people stop dead in thier tracks. It normally to look at thier phones...gggrrrrrr 

  • carterusm wrote (see)

    And cyclists who are on the pavement that is not a cycle path. At this time of the year they go on the pavements as they havent got any lights on so think its too dangerous for them to be on the road.

    If I see a cyclist on a pavement I start to meander.  A cyclist on the road, at night, without lights is fair-game, too, I reckon.

  • Bizarrely, in Hammersmith where I work, and where there is a pretty large one-way system, a lot of cyclists (those that aren't on the pavements) think it's perfectly legitimate to go the wrong way round the one-way system so long as they're in the gutter. How stupid this is I can't even begin to explain.

  • carterusm wrote (see)

    And cyclists who are on the pavement that is not a cycle path.


    Ah, the pavement-mounted yoof on a bmx is a common occurence round my way. I've worked out that their average speed is a little higher than my easy running pace but slower than my tempo running pace.  When they're coming in the opposite direction it's potentially hazardous (although only near-misses so far), but a lot more fun when I overtake them and they jump out of their skin, sometimes even dropping their fag.

  • So long as you don't drop yours, Phil

  • ....and to the three lady runners in Marlow who made me jump into the road, as they were unable to move from their 'vic' formation, hope I can extend the courtesy to you one day.

    So, not just pedestrians, or pedestrians with dogs, or pedestrians with i-Pods, or pedestrians with i-Pods with dogs with i-Pods..........

  • Never had any problems in London to be honest when I used running as my daily commute - I tended to run in the road when it was busy - or along the embankment where the pavement was wide  so no problems (did get into trouble with the police one day for running through one of the under passes though which were pedestrian free - which is strange in some ways because when I flagged down a police car one day to report a cyclist on the pavement they were not interested!!!) I did punch a cyclist on the embankment one day though because he was on the pavement - totally by accident you understand - as I was actually trying to knock him off.

  • Peter Collins wrote (see)

    I got really annoyed when I was pedestrianising the other day because this baldbloke barrelled into me while I was texting and then told me to go forth and multiply. Sod.

    Peter Collins wrote (see)

    I'll get in my car and run him down next time.

    And youre suggesting I go to anger management classes !! image

  • Other people really annoy me.

    That is all.

     

  • I suspect that many walkers would view runners in busy areas with the same contempt that is being shown towards cyclists on this thread...

     

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