Going VERY slowly on shared use path, I'm on the left hand side (road side) of the path. Did I say I was going slowly? Well, just in case, I was going slowly behind a couple of other cyclists going equally slowly. Few peds straggled out on right hand side of path. Everyone seems to have worked out bikes left, peds right and we might just get through this alive if we carry on working as a team. Quite impressed with humanity at this point, its better than normal.
Woman walking her bike towards me decides she wants to cross the road. Glances over her shoulder at the road behind her (which I was surprised at, tricked me into thinking she had half a brain cell) then walked smartly across the path and shoved her front wheel into my back wheel. No damage done, as I was going very slowly. In fairness she did sheepishly say "ooops, sorry". I think I said something condescending and northern like "wake up duck"
Note: slowness emphasised for people on bike forums who never believe that you were actually going slowly and instead fly off the handle about people racing at inappropriate speeds down shared use pavements and try to suggest that it was the cyclists fault (not any of my threads, was reading through some old threads on this site and others and was amazed at how often people willfully ignore whats been posted to trot out the same tired old nonsense over and over again).
Oh, and then there was the guy who reversed out his driveway then stopped along a row of parked cars to chat to someone walking along the pavement.. He had stopped in the middle of the road, not pulled up to the kerb so I decided to go for the gap. I had stopped to assess what the hell was going on so I set off slowly. I could see the pedestrian with his head down in the window, bobbing around in conversation so (wrongly) assumed they were still chatting. Of course as soon as I get alongside Chatty then decides to move off, but not in a straight line, which would have been fine. He moved closer to the parked cars and squashed me so I had to do some top skidz. I know, I know, partly my fault. Should have just waited, or skipped up onto the pavement on the other side, or rang my bell, shouted, rammed his car etc but he set off without checking his mirror thingies.
The general public, that is - people in general, get me right down at times.
In other news, my tea and coffee consumption has been reaching ridiculous levels recently so today was the first day drinking only water. I don't think its affected my mood too much.
