girljen

So I was out for a ride on the MUP today, pulling my daughter in the trailer. We came up on a family, two parents and three kids. The adults walked two abreast and the kids walked three abreast (when one or two of them weren't lollygagging in the grass, walking three-up with the parents, or weaving back and forth), thus assuring that they took up the. entire. path.

I rang my bell as I approached. They didn't acknowledge me. I rang it again, then twice more. Still, nothing.

I called out. "On your left!" Finally, the parents looked back at me...then kept walking right where they were.

"Excuse me!" I called. This got the kids to notice. One of them scooted over even further to the left, blocking me.

Now, I couldn't just squeeze by, since I had the trailer and was twice as wide as normal. I figured I shouldn't dismount and give them a piece of my mind, as I want to model respectful behavior to my daughter. For the same reason, I couldn't just bump them off the path, even though by that point I kind of wanted to.

One more time, I rang my bell and called out, "Excuse me, on your left!"

Finally, the family of geese made their way to the grass on the right side of the path.

gascostalot

Much more effective.

mlts22 

This also comes to mind, if just to startle and get them into dodge mode for the 250ms needed for you to make your pass through the herd: