Mothers! A buggy blockade

Back in June 2014 I was commuting through Bute Park in Cardiff. The paths are wide and, in the mornings, quiet. Anyway....it was a lovely sunny June morning and I was feeling good. Up ahead of me were two young women with pushchairs, end-to-end, chatting and taking up nearly the whole width of the path. "Excuse me ladies", I shouted out, expecting them to give me a little space to get past. They didn't budge an inch. I had slowed to jogging pace and moved out to the very edge of the path.  Big mistake as there was a gap between the edge of the path and a metal strip. My front wheel went into the gap and before I could do anything the bars were torn out of my grasp and down I went. It's what  motorcyclists call a front washout.

I went down so hard it was like the hand of God had come down and slapped me into the tarmac. I knew something was very wrong when I found I couldn't stand up. Broken collar bone. The paths are constructed of used razer blades mixed with flint so my left side - upper arm to thigh - looked like I'd been mauled by a very pissed-off tiger. Lots of blood. One of the ladies walked over and said "Ooo, I think that was my fault", and walked off with her mate, leaving me to bleed on the path.     

What about Mini Scooters though! Fantastic article on the daily heil - 'Scourge of the Streets' - the whole thing could have literally been written by the Daily Mash

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2683876/How-mini-scooters-sco...

Ref: your nattering buggy mummies, I don't think there's anything to be done, just get a bell, be polite, keep calm and carry on. 

I find a friendly “Good morning” combined with a loud freehub works well to announce my presence.  Even the professionally offended find it hard to challenge that.  I have a feeling that calling “cyclist”, however cheerily, might not be as well received.

You have come face to face with the sense of entitlement bestowed on women after six or seven decades of feminism. 

Your next test will be to walk down the street and not move out of the way of females coming in the opposite direction.   Just make sure you look your best, as you'll be on YouTube before you get home.

@hawkinspeter - why on earth is this a stock photo? Who commissioned it? I have two theories. Either (a) you own alamy and can bend it to your squirrelly will; or (b) your squirrel photo searches are driving trends in stock photo companies. "Right team, we're seeing unprecedented demand for pictures of squirrels right now. Squirrels in berets, squirrels in the maillot jaune, squirrels who look like Alaphilippe or Pinot. Just bring me squirrels! You, the one who normally does tedious shots of office stationery and co-workers deep in discussion - you're reassigned to squirrels!"   

Seems a bit selfish to me to take up the whole shared path and not be on the lookout for others. Still, it's not as bad as the parents with buggies on trains that ignore the instruction to fold them up and instead take up the only space available for bikes (it's literally the only place on the train that bikes are allowed).

Still, could be worse...

1) no it's not fair, and 2) they really should be aware it's a shared path, but 3) you won't get far expecting people to acknowledge this or do anything about it.

Shared paths are not great, because of this problem - pedestrians don't realise that bikes actually use them sometimes.

Yes, they are numpties for looking at you disapprovingly, but nothing you can do about that.

accept and continue with life, nothing we can do to change these things, same with dog walkers, construction work, etc.

Its not right but its not wrong either