AIBU to stop always moving aside for people in public?

Just read this post and it's exactly the same as what I've discovered (see my post above).
Clearly,it's the answer!

I sympathise with you. I've always got out of peolpe's way and waited patiently. Very rarely do they even notice.
So I also decided to try to change (although I don't actually mind waiting for others) as always giving way takes a lot of time .
I'm talking about central London, btw. I find the worst places are the big central railway stations. London Bridge is the worst imo, and Liverpool Street pretty shocking and St Pancras.
I think there's a skill to this:
You need to kind of defocus your gaze , so that you aren't clearly registering the oncoming person/s. Then you need to walk much faster than normal in a straight line, with a kind of angry look on your face.😂
I find that if I do that, then people do get out of my way and I get to my destination quicker.
But I don't keep it up for long. It doesn't come naturally.
I think you need to work in your technique @Clara1984

They fully expect me to move as an invisible, little older lady. I play chicken or just stop dead, but I do need my shoulder blades. Ditto giving older people time to move out of the super market and someone really busy and important barding past the whole little stream of people trailing behind them.

It's a shame everyone isn't as thoughtful. There are lovely people in this World. Manners cost nothing but they make everyone's life that little bit better.

I don't mind moving out of one person's way, but I find annoying:

• people walking two or three abreast who don't go into single file to pass you, including parents with children - they should walk behind their children to pass
• people weaving about in the middle of the pavement staring at their phone
• people who stand still to look at their phone in stupid places, like the top of an escalator
• people who stand still to have a conversation in stupid places, like the top of an escalator

My teen is blind and a long-cane user. It is simply incredible the number of people who jump over her cane or try to force her into the gutter, mainly codependent couples who can’t bear not to hold hands for a nano-second. It’s taken years of me training her to stand her ground and to use her cane more assertively. We live in a tourist town with narrow pavements and my big bugbear is dogs on long leads. Again, I have trained both of my children to hold fast on the pavement side of a road rather than being forced off the kerb so the dog stays safe. Personally, I am now an invisible middle-aged woman so I am constantly barged in shops by people with backpacks. On pavements, I now stop dead and force the hand-holders and other rude people to move around me. They are welcome to barge me and my shopping bag with its secret brick (Joke). My days of stepping into the paths of cars to accommodate other folk with either zero spatial awareness or zero consideration for anyone else are over.

The problem in central London isn’t bumping into people walking towards you, though, it’s navigating around slowly-moving tourists, especially in large groups, who are moving in the same direction. Deep desire to try to impose something akin to tube escalator rules: ‘Dawdlers single file as close to the wall as possible!’

Yes 100%. I use it all the time in central London. It even works most of the time on Oxford St. The other day I walked the whole length of Regent’s St without having to break my stride by walking decisively looking straight ahead. If you are walking fast with purpose it is surprisingly effective.

To paraphrase Roy Keane, when things aren’t going my way, when I’m not at the races “I might just smash into someone…. just to make me feel better”.

I got sick of always being the one to move out of the way and often into the road so now I just don't.

Most of the time I just stop dead which seems to confuse a lot of people. The couples who can't possibly walk without holding each others' hand and the idiots glued to their phone screen are the ones that annoy me the most.

There's the most amazing woman who lives near me, she's a childminder and has a whole bevy of children she looks after. They are so well drilled!

Disagree. For me it is 99% men.

They also start getting aggressive if I just stop and stand my ground or point out that I am carrying heavy shopping bag and I should not be the one expected to move...

There was a thread a while ago on this and it registered with me that I was moving and men and younger people were not.

Since then I completely stop and THEY walk around me.
Stopping has changed this.

I think some people have never been taught the etiquette of doors and are probably too dim to work it out for themselves.

I remember being taught as a child that when you go through a door you check if anyone is coming towards you or about to follow you through the door and, in either case, hold the door until they get there so they can take it from you rather than let it shut in their face. If anyone does it for you then you thank them and take the door from them when you reach them.

Thankfully I still find most people do this but you get the occasional so-and-so who just walks through without a word or, like you describe, say thank you but don't take the door! Obviously if it's someone with a pushchair or something I am happy to hold it until they are through.

Mind you I remember being pleasantly surprised a while back. I used to attend a Saturday morning music club. This was held in school premises but wasn't actually organised by the school. I play a largish instrument so would be carrying the instrument case plus at least one other bag for a stand, music etc. One day I was walking down a corridor which had three sets of doors I needed to negotiate and this very sweet, polite teenager who was just behind me darted ahead at every set of doors and held them open for me to get through. What a well brought-up child!

Is it literally just allowing your shoulder to lower, or something else?

Yes.....this has got a lot worse in recent years, I've noticed. Maybe because I am older? Dunno

For those saying it’s mainly men, I think it’s women just as much as men to be honest. I was recently shouldered by a lady who suddenly walked across and into my path. By doing that, I had nowhere to go but into a wall, whereas she had about four metres of a very wide and empty walkway - but no she fancied a few seconds in the shade, which was apparently more important. I don’t know where she expected me to go. Flatten myself against the wall or something. She didn’t apologise - just kept on walking. I was also recently shouldered hard in the back in a rather empty shop by a lady as she passed me. I know it was an accident but she didn’t say sorry either.

Men are just as bad, but I think both sexes include bad mannered tossers.

I must admit that I've been wondering if the art of herding small children is becoming a lost one. So many parents seem not bother these days

Very occasionally, when someone is trying to barge past me in the opposite direction on a narrow tube platform, I will apply something that my old dad taught me who used to play a lot of rugby and “drop the shoulder”.

This means that they not only barge into me, but they bounce off me. I think rugby players use it to avoid being tackled.

I know it’s not very nice, but all’s fair in love and war.

@CareHope difficult in such a a jaw dropping moment of entitlement.
I recommend having a few phrases to hand - eg a heavily sarcastic " no trouble at all , anytime "

I stand my ground if I am carrying heavy bags and I can see a man purposely making his way towards me rather than having the courtesy to move aside.

I have noticed it is mainly men doing that and I think some of them are doing it just because they think the little woman will automatically give way...

I love this. I'm too polite. Went into a shop today and I pushed the door open and then held it as someone was coming towards me and it would've closed in front of them if I'd have just let go. Rather than taking the weight off the door from me as they walked out, he left me holding the door for him, said thank you and walked through as if I was a door person. I wish I had the confidence to march after people and explain what I expected to elevate them to somewhere near to considerate. I was conclude it must be me. I wonder whether I'll just end up staying indoors as I don't seem to understand the rules anymore. I'm there with you off the kerb and I'm the road or the river. 🤣 I'd rather be me though.

This answer nails it. Staring dead ahead into the middle distance with a neutral expression, they will divert around you.

I have tested this extensively at busy London train stations in rush hour. I walk in a dead straight line, fast pace, zero collisions. The stare makes the difference.

Obviously there's a certain section of society who are rude/glued to their phone and need to be more considerate. But I think among those of us declaring they wont take this any more, there can be a certain amount of confirmation bias. It's very easy not to notice the people who do anticipate well and move out of the way. So how do we all know that we are the one moving more than 50% of the time (which is presumably the all things being even situation)?

Loads of people do move for me, drivers wave me across etc. And this is as a forth something frequently wandering around in non-sexy gym gear with hair scraped back.

I'd honestly rather notice those people. Mostly anyway. There's the odd time I'll just decide to be stubborn, but the world's a nicer place if you are nice.

Well I’m a plain 54 year old frequently walking solo, and I don’t find this at all.