Men DO NOT have right of way!

@JohnTheRevelator don't get me started on mamils. Not the same thing, but yesterday I sitting outside on a boat & a mamil, still in his lycra, decided to stand against the side, right in front of me to spoil my view; so my direct eyeline was his thrusted forward pelvis, showing his soft willy encased in his lycra shorts. Why do they think we all want to see this 🤮

No, I didn’t to be fair. Thanks for that, even though I know it was supposed to be a gotcha.

Yes. I am now 57 but 4 years ago I had to commute daily on the LNER line and get off at Newcastle. A suited man of around my age always seemed to be waiting at my door exit and would shove on as I was trying to exit the carriage.
No quarter given to the fact I use very obvious NHS double crutches.
Eventually I got fed up and one day stood my ground and bellowed: 'MOVE' at him. He looked sheepish & a couple of women on the platform actually clapped.

I became disabled aged 34. It astonishes me how many people can't see crutches or wheelchairs (but can use BB parking spaces you don't 'need')
It is occasionally women but it is overwhelmiingly men. I am sure that if I had been 20, pneumatic and blond it would be less: men value women for sex.

DO NOT get me started on cyclists. We have three kinds around here. There are the folk who are used to cycling, They wear the gear, behave like road users and are totally no problem. They we have the bum in air "Look at wonderful me and my wonderful bike" types, mostly men. The third group are people who have used one of the local rent a bike on your holidays services. Most of them don't seem to have been on a bike for years, wobble along in groups wandering all over the road and thinking its all a huge joke. Often there are children with them, usually trailing along at the back unsupervised.

Where does 'keep left' come from? I'd never heard it until I was told off by a random man for walking on the wrong side of a footpath.
I'm a Londoner and always stand on the right on escalators, but unless there are specific signs in busy areas, I'll just walk wherever's easiest.
But I won't get out the way of someone deliberately changing direction so they are walking straight at me.

I am not talking about needing to go in the road, I am just talking about NOT ploughing down the middle of the pavement

There's an urban cycling group I come across who are the same. Mixed sex.

I think they were referring to women in pairs who walk side by side with prams, holding a child on one hand and a dog in the other, taking up the entire width of a wide pavement, and not mothers walking on their own on narrow paths.

That poor woman pushed by that make jogger! Omg she could have been seriously injured or killed. What an utter bastard.

I for one look forward to your reign 😁

I’m sorry for what you have to put up with being short, it sounds like hard work. It’s a shame everyone can’t be more considerate.

The cctv is quite good of him. Maybe he escaped abroad after it to avoid detection. Its a shame there wasn't a face on picture of him as they might have been able to do facial recognition

@blubbyblub

I’ve come across whole swarms of them on a group walk who seem to think because they are doing a group activity the common decency rules of single file when on a narrow path dont apply

Same with ramblers who seem to think they have right of way because they're ramblers.

I naturally look at about collarbone height anyway.

I try to avoid starting parkrun/ races behind tall men as I can't see around them to anticipate what's ahead, and fear getting a bloodied nose from a swinging elbow. That's just a physics issue rather than a masculinity issue though.

Swans are so much less stressful than Splashy Front Crawl Man or Chatty Dry-Hair Ladies What Breaststroke.

When I am benign dictactor of the universe, I shall decree that all persons are to keep left (or right in applicable places around the world) unless overtaking and so many of these issues will be avoided.

Not all women with pushchairs are good people. I’ve had women in pairs taking up the entire path. Not even walking close together but close enough that no one can pass.

I’ve come across whole swarms of them on a group walk who seem to think because they are doing a group activity the common decency rules of single file when on a narrow path dont apply

they aren’t a single entity. If the path is narrow they should fall into single file. Their social chit chat doesn’t come above pavement courtesy and shared usage.

Yup, I've found that too. If I'm walking and a group are approaching, usually ramblers who are terrible for having attitude, I'll just stop and pretend to be taking a photo and they then manage to go into narrower formation which they seem incapable of doing if I continue to walk towards them!

I've found lots of men do this, but actually more and more people seem completely oblivious to those around them. Women walking next to each other with both their prams and refusing to move when someone is walking towards them is common where I am, as are the oblivious twats who stand to chat right in front of the drop kerb near the school, so I can't easily get onto the footpath with DS's wheelchair...then there are the kids on bikes and scooters who were never taught that they should get off and walk when they are approaching people on a footpath, not ring their bell incessantly as they speed towards them, expecting others to get out of their way.

Tell me about it - MAMILs (and younger men in lycra too)... I live on a canal boat with my 3yo and a dog and frequently have to shout at men on bikes to slow down on the towpath before they crash into my daughter or dog. One almost crashed into an oncoming cyclist a couple of days ago because he was going so fast (was satisfying since I'd just shouted at him to slow down!). Caveat that men on bikes not in lycra seem to be much better behaved!

Cyclists and scooters on pavements, including teens and even older children, are a different matter.

I am a guy, for those who asked. But not a tall one; there are plenty of taller women.

It is an interesting one though. I tend to look ahead and try to see where others are walking and take a line which avoids collisions. I don’t have many! The only times are where I perceive someone (of either sex) walking determinedly as if they own the pavement and there is no way past them. In that case I put my shoulder down and walk on.

But I honestly don’t get this thread, and the many like it that pop up every few months.

Very few are prepared to be upfront and say that they want men to be chivalrous (which is my default position as I was brought up that way) but equally few are prepared to explain why they think a man holding his ground is worse than a woman holding her ground.

I don’t see a middle way between chivalry and chicken in the event of no easy way to pass. I think keep left or keep right would be sensible.

It's occurred to me that the exception to my post is runners. I live down narrow lanes and if I'm running or walking on the correct side as a pedestrian, ie facing traffic, and a male runner comes the other way, they will more often than not attempt to force me into the road, even if they have to cross over to do it. Female runners rarely do this, and are generally on the correct side anyway.

The annoying thing is I know I do it, I know it’s because it’s what I’ve been taught/trained to do as a female child, but I just can’t overcome the socialisation.

I was always made to move out the way, for men, older people, younger people, anyone really. Manners, politeness etc. I now know that it’s not polite, it’s basically being told to shut up and put up. Same as “be kind”, women, know your place and put your own needs aside.

i wonder if younger women don’t do it as much because like me, their mums have consciously not told them to move out the way, to “be polite” and stand to the side with a smile.

I was taught, and taught my dc, to walk single file on the left. So many people do not do this. I refuse to put children or myself in the road just so entitled people can walk along holding hands or just two or more abreast. Children excluded from that esp little ones.
I stand my ground and keep walking.

When I lived in London, I regularly played patriarchy chicken. Where I live now, it's a game played almost exclusively by women. You'll be walking along a wide pavement, close to one side with no one around you and no obstructions, and a woman coming the other way on the other side of the pavement will make an obvious swerve and almost scrape herself along the wall to try and make you move. I just stop and stand still so that if they want to play silly buggers they'll have to be obvious about it! Sometimes I adopt a faintly puzzled expression. It's a pretty affluent area, with a lot of socially competitive people, and I wonder if it's a conscious or unconscious attempt to assert superiority. It's most often women in their 30s or 40s in active wear. There's probably a psychology study in it.

I just stand my ground and give them the death stare…it usually works quite well 😁

I love a game of this. I find it a fascinating insight into behaviour.

challenge is as children , female children we are socialised to do this to give way to make ourselves small. It must be difficult if you are a bit of a thick man when all of a sudden that thing that used to happen doesn’t happen.

I am lucky and live in a nice area , I find men get out of my way as they are polite and generally don’t have an Andrew Tate sized chip on their shoulder about women , town where I grew up certain men just don’t know what to do, they can’t walk round you they just stop like their brains have malfunctioned.