As a Navy vet who got conditioned through lots of screaming to always be aware of your surroundings and mindful of people trying to get around you in 5’ by 1000’ passageways, I have no respect for people who hold up foot traffic or keep left for no reason. I don’t care what age you are. Old age is not a license for inconsideration. Get out of the fucking way.
And it seems the feeling is mutual from the “in the way” crowd. The other day I had an old lady grumble at me out loud for walking too fast, like I was the one inconveniencing her by walking around her.
YellingAtClouds.jpg
Old person here, with short legs. If I can hear your feet I’ll try to keep to the right, and I might even slow down a little to make the passing moment faster. I appreciate if you say “On your left,” as you go by. Because then we’re both heroes.
I always try to give a passing side announcement, what’s fun is about 25% of the time the person moves in that direction!
PSA: Most of them don’t mind. They remember being your age. Say “G’day” while you pass them.
I tried this but then they respond with “Servus.” Austria is strange.
Wrong Austria
I just got back from Vienna yesterday. Servus!
Sorry I would walk slow and smell the flowers but I have to keep increasing my productivity or go homeless and that means I have to be places.
The opposite happens to me frequently because they have electric assist bikes and I don’t. Holy shit that old boy is keeping up a pace- ohhhhh he’s barely pedalling
I’m kinda envious to be honest
I’m torn between being jealous and annoyed because those things are basically motorcycles. There’s a bike/pedestrian path near me that I often use and one of its rules is “no motorized vehicles,” to the extent people get tickets for using those electric rent-a-scooter things on there. But apparently people zooming past at 40mph, 2 feet away from someone walking their dog, is fine, cuz technically it has pedals
I’m kind of annoyed honestly. I ride my bicycle to work and while the city I live in does have extra paths for the bicycles, they are so narrow that overtaking is kinda risky if the person in front of you is not indanger of hitting the boardwalk with their right pedal.
Imagine you are riding a bike at a reasonable pace uphill but still slowing people behind you down because they have motor assisting them.
pretty sure ebikes really struggle driving fast, plus there’s regulation to limit their speed
The legally available ones top out in my area at 20mph, or 28mph if it has a speedometer. Professional cyclists top out in that range too, and average cyclists are around 13-15mph. If you DIY with a Bafang or something, you can go 30-40mph.
I see people people running the throttle only at the limit on the ped path. That should be illegal. There should probably also be a top speed on the ped path (say, 20mph) because it’s shared by walkers, cyclists, and rollerskaters alike.
There’s a section of a multi-use path in my city that has a limit of 15kph (k not m), right need a parking lot with poor visibility. It even has one of those radar shame signs. Not unreasonable all things considered but it does seem kinda slow.
Yeah, 15kph seems unreasonably slow, and I think my kids ride about that fast. Maybe 20kph is better? I usually slow to 15-20kph anyway when there isn’t enough room to give others more than a meter of space when I pass.
So yeah, in kph, I think the regular stretches should be around 30kph, and maybe 20kph around parks and parking areas since there are likely unattended young children and pets around. I can stop very quickly at 20kph.
They are at least a lot lighter than an actual motorbike, but yes there should be a line drawn on how fast they can go. The motors are capped at 15.5 mph / 25 kph here, which is a fast but manageable pace for a decent cyclist. Anything above that counts as a motorbike and has to be taxed and registered as one
Oh man, I was annoyed at this woman coming up on me uphill on a shared path one day. That is, until she got close enough for me to see she made my 75 year old mother look like a teenager. Then I thought “good for you, gran, but maybe slow down a bit”.
I hope I’m as tough as people like that if and when I get to that age. I like hillwalking and bump into them every so often. I’m fairly capable out on the hills but I take a pretty leisurely approach; I’ll bring a good sandwich and stop to eat it somewhere with a nice view, take a little detour to see something interesting, that sort of thing. One time when I was out I overtook one very old lady four times because every time I stopped she just marched on by like a goddamn machine. On the fourth one she made a joke about the tortoise and the hare. I was glad she said it because I was definitely thinking it
OMG! I genuinely match their pace and make sure not to remind them they’re not the energizer bunny that I am. I don’t want to make people sad with my walking, that’s not why I walk at ALL!
If you are the only person in the race you will always win.
:3
