People shuffling about and getting in the way

[CruCru]

I’ve spent a day in the centre of London. I’m amazed by how many people wander about slowly, shuffling about - all young people (mostly staring at their phones). Groups of people just stop abruptly in the middle of the pavement and look a bit surprised when I say excuse me to get past them. People standing in front of shops, blocking the entrance and exit (not homeless people, just people in their twenties).

I can’t decide whether I’ve just become middle aged and irritable or whether people have become less aware of those around them.

I live in London and the people stopping suddenly in the middle of the pavement are ALWAYS tourists.

It's annoying when you have a place to get to in a hurry but we've all done it so I would cut them some slack. We've all annoyed someone about something at some point.

YANBU at all. I'm sure it's got worse since covid too. The average walking pace for able bodied adults appears to be c. 0.5mph

Ridiculous.

The thing is, I used to come up to London with a friend for a day out from when I was 13. I was always careful not to just stop or get in people’s way (I didn’t have a phone to stare at, to be fair).

Stopping in the street I can deal with (just walk around them). It's the slow shufflers who take up the whole pavement who do my head in.

Yes! I would totally understand if they were old or disabled. But it seems like huge numbers of people in their twenties just shuffle about with no direction or purpose. Then look a bit surprised that they’ve shuffled into the path of an overweight woman in her forties who, you know, actually has somewhere to get to.

I think they are probably sightseeing.
Cut them some slack.

It’s the people who walk in front of you in a row of 5 that does my head in. Can’t get through them or round them.

You know, it probably teaches me that I don’t like central London on a Saturday. Monday morning is fine.

<rushes in>

YANBU
I thought this was going to be about doing the food shop. I am almost always in a constant state of annoyance in our local Tesco with people standing staring at, for example, the blinkin' milk. It's milk. Just pick some of it up and fuck off down the aisle!

And get your bloody trolly out of the middle of everyone's way!
Shuffle shuffle shuffle 😡

What worries me is a large proportion of these people are driving cars - they obviously have NO spacial awareness or sense of their surroundings and to get home they are in charge of large hunks of metal moving at great speed.

<thank you for the rant opportunity OP>

People who stop and stand at the end of escalators, people who stand in doorways, people who stand in the middle of the pavement: these can all fuck off.

Walking into a shop in Bruges today, almost knocked somebody clean over because in the doorway they decided to stop and start filming on their phone. Jumped when I said "excuse me please" loudly. Yep, it's a doorway, people generally need to walk through them.

It's everywhere. People just stopping dead 8n their tracks. No thought that someone might be behind you.

Coming at you 2 or 3 abreast on the path and nearly colliding instead of going single file and weighing the situation up. They wouldn't drive their car like that.

YANBU, although in Oxford its usually middle aged to older people poodling about aimlessly, stopping the second they step off the bus with 20 other people trying to get off the same bus behind them, meandering around shops picking things up and putting them down again, or when they get bored of weaving around on the pavement, suddenly stepping into the traffic that they're surprised to see is still there (and angry).

People who walk their toddlers up and down the stairs when there's a queue of people behind them. There's a time and a place for it!

Add to all that people who walk slowly up or down stairs while gazing at their phones.

And the ones who walk down Tube escalators very slowly, thus holding up all the people who are on the left because they’re in a hurry…. If you’re not in a rush then just stand on the other side with everyone else!!!

People being slow because of heavy bags or movement limitations should be given some slack. Those on their phones not.

Standing on the left on an escalator on the London Underground is a worse social faux pas than listening to Coldplay.

This does my head in!

Not just that London. I live in a small, now infamous, market town and visitors have always been like this, but now it’s worse. The pavements aren’t wide, but having to play dodgems with bunches(gaggles, herds? What is the collective noun for tourists?) of visitors isn’t fun. I know they bring money to the area, but, ffs don’t hog the pavement!

Standing on the left on an escalator on the London Underground is a worse social faux pas than listening to Coldplay.

Yes, but at least if someone’s just standing on the left you can legitimately ask them to move. If they’re walking down at a snail’s pace then they’re actually moving so I feel unable to ask them to please get out of the way.

People that stop suddenly outside a shop, or an entrance/exit do my bloody head in. Then they wonder why they get bumped by trolleys, other people etc.

And gormless people gazing at their phones paying no attention to what’s going on around them. One stepped out into the road in front of me the other day, I nearly cycled into him. Idiot.

So when you go on holiday abroad you never ramble about looking at shops or whatever you're interested in?

Native Londoner here, I am very good at weaving in and out of tourists, my friends say it’s like keeping up with a kite.

I used to feel annoyance but now I just feel a bit sorry for them because they don’t know how irritating they are. Hint for visitors, just walk closer to the wall and let people pass you if you don’t know the way.

It’s nothing new.
I live in London and it’s been a daily occurrence for decades even before mobiles. Although one thing has improved, tourists are no longer take up the pavement reading massive maps .

Couldn't agree more. If you want to stop and stare at something, move to the side.

See also the phone zombies who aren't looking where they're going. I was queuing to get into a tube station not too long ago and someone walked right into the back of me, dropped their phone, then gave me a filthy look. They hadn't seen the queue of tens of people because they were too absorbed in a screen.

I usually walk around people but I've started to refuse to dodge phone zombies. They always look so surprised that there might be something in front of them. I can see how easy it is for the moped thieves to snatch people's phones.

If you're walking, put your phone away, your head up, and be alert.