to think it's rude to block the pavement?

[JeanneDeMontbaston]

I really don't think I am BU. I live in a touristy city full of bikes, so it's not a good idea to step off the pavement into the road (not that it really is anywhere), and there are groups of vacant-looking idiots clumping up all over the pavements. I mean, FFS, I know you are all in a group and have therefore turned into sheep, but couldn't you notice and move?

I am BU today, because I am getting sick of politely saying 'excuse me' and getting shocked looks from teenage tour groups who stare back as if you've asked them to scale the Himalayas instead of moving a foot back. And I walked through people's photos. Yes, I am a mean person, and yes, I did hear a woman with a huge camera tutting because I didn't wait for her nicely.

If you wish, you can give me a kicking, but I am secretly hoping you will join me in my hatred of humankind.

Oh, and wandering out into the road.

Er....hello? We do have cars here you know!

I'm totally with you. you have to walk through people's pictures to cross most of the bridges in London. It's so annoying.

Oh, yes, I can't imagine but I can see it'd be horrible. There's a really narrow pavement in one place here, which is wide enough for two people or one person in a wheelchair, and it drives me nuts when people don't bother to look ahead, so they wander down it in a huge gaggle then look surprised when there's someone coming the other way in a wheelchair or with a pushchair. Like, cos, it's really really hard to cross the road and go on the wider bit, when you can manage kerbs?

stinkle - if you try to be nice and patient you're a better woman than me.

Our busiest time is Easter to October -ish, ask me again in August!

YANBU. I work in Central London.

After a while the photographers no longer register, the elbows and loud voice really do become instinctive, and as for escalators... Anyone who stands on the wrong side finds themselves having to squeeze out of the way or start walking.

(Having said that, I do help carry buggies down/up stairs and help lost tourists navigate the tube).

Oh, Jeanne I totally forgot about the rage inducing rudeness of people walking abreast straight into your path! Sometimes I'm not sure if I'm sitting in a wheelchair or wearing an invisibility cloak!

Stubborn, knitting needles a great idea but I wouldn't be able to reach. Maybe if I taped two together?

here it is students spilling out of the building walking five abreast. a double buggy and a don't mess with me look soon shifts them. I don't have a double buggy anymore sadly, but we no longer have to walk past the uni for hospital appointments so that is a plus.

How about one of those stick swords? Bet people would move aside pretty fast when prodded with that. Or an actual lance! Get it balanced right accross your chair and then charge right at em.

YesIDidMean - I wouldn't bother with the subtlety of knitting needles, to be honest - how about a pike or spear?

Oh god, the people walking in front of your cars! I had a guy walk into my car, at the back end of the passenger side. It wasn't a gentle musing type walk either, it was a full on "I'm ging somewhere now." speed. Scared the shit out of me! I pulled up to check he was alright and he'd bloody walked off!

YY. I live in a city full of tourists and hen/stag parties. Hen parties are the worst with their sodding pull along suitcases, cackling away having fun wearing their matching t-shirts, pink feather boas and Stetsons, pulling their suitcases along behind them stopping suddenly and/or changing direction without looking or indicating and nearly tripping me up as I try to get past them.

Also on my shit list are people who stop to chat in shop doorways. Extra points if there's a pram or pushchair .

And people who amble along staring gormlessly at their phones with no idea what's going on around them. Sometimes I think the zombie apocalypse has already started.

I hate tourists. OK I admit it, I hate the groups of 20 tourists with matching suitcases. I hate them wandering slowly along when I am trying to get my shopping done. They need to learn manners. some are good, a few years ago a friend went out to a cash machine, he came back ages later and bought us all drinks, he was wearing a kilt and a group of Japanese tourists had paid him to have their photos taken with him, free food and drink for about 15 of us for the evening Apart from that I hate them all.
Could we have a new law giving us a tourist free period in every year? February to November would be good, let them come in December and January only.

I hate the fuckers that suddenly stop mid stride in a busy shopping centre, so you nearly bash into them. Grrrr, move somewhere else then stop.

I live in a small market town that gets its fair share of tourists. By the side of my house is a passage into town centre, it's wide enough for one person. My biggest bugbear is visitors loudly saying "oo this is narrow, you'd think they'd widen it" and knock down a 200 year old wall or take a chunk out my house. Yeah great idea.

i hate stupid tourists. i hate the tourists in london who stop on the other side of the ticket barrier on the tube.

i hate people stupid tourists who take pictures with iPads....

Also as a wheelchair chair, I get to the point where I think after a loud and polite excuse me please is ignored, your feet/knees are fair game. ;) And why do people stop directly behind me in an electric wheelchair when I'm clearly trying to manoeuvre?

Pay attention, people!

(I haven't really maimed anyone yet, but have had people walk directly at me, not looking down at all, as I shout, "Excuse me? Excuse me? Hello?! STOP!" Yet they still look shocked as they walk into me. My wheelchair isn't small.

If you are then I'm beyond unreasonable.

I once walked into the middle of a group of teenagers and shouted "FUCKING MOVE" after they failed to respond to the frail old man who was trying to get past them on a narrow pedestrian street. It worked. Try it. People will love you and not death stare you, honest.

If it's not the sodding tourists, it's the bloody punt tour touts... I feel your pain!

Ooh, I feel much better now.

And clean, I might take your advice.

OMFG YES!! I lived there for 10 years, we moved to one of the villages about a year ago. I think I'm in

(Oops!) in tourists' pictures around the globe. I have to play tour guide to friends and family often, and my first rule is don't be fucking annoying tourists actually my first rule is steer clear of the touts, but anyway

Oh God, YANBU! It drives me mad. Another one is step out of a shop without paying any attention to pedestrians walking up or down the street, stop dead in the middle of the pavement with your back to all contemplating your navel, blocking/impeding several people on their way somewhere in the process. Aaaaggghhh.

Jeanne, the thing that gives me the absolute rage is when I dash into town in my too short lunch break, dodge tourists, bikes and camera happy people and then get accosted by young men outside what I still think of as Henrys.

No, I do not want to go punting ffs

And who thought it was a brilliant idea to put what must be the world's most photographable clock on a corner with a pavement that is only 6 inches wide so that anybody wanting to take a photo of said clock has to step into the road? Madness, I tell you.

I dislike going into Oxford now I no longer have a pushchair

used - god, yes. Besides which, IT IS FEBRUARY. No one in their right mind wants to punt.