Originally Posted by
VACaver
Mine was about a month ago: I was coming up behind the Widette family who were spread across the width of the MUP. I started hollering "Coming by on your left" and they totally ignored me. I yelled again, Dad turned and looked...and ignored me. Finally, when I was damn near stopped about 20 feet behind them, they moved over to let me pass. As I did, their little daughter (probably about 7 or so) decided it'd be great fine to run in front of me, zig-zagging across the MUP, keeping me from getting by since I had no clue what she was going to do. She was laughing her little heart out, and so were Mom and Dad as they watched her.
Normally I'm a pretty calm person, but after putting up with this for a hundred feet or so, I was pretty pissed, had enough and yelled, "GET THE F*** OUT OF MY WAY!!!" I'm not proud of it, but it did the trick...the kid froze and I managed to get by.
Yelling the F-word at a little girl on the MUP ... nicely done. She deserved it; why, had that not been effective you might even have had to stop and walk your bike past her/them. That is not acceptable under any circumstances. Families like this just don't understand that we cyclists are entitled to unimpeded progress on Multi-Use recreational Paths.
I'm sure you've taught Dad and Mom a valuable lesson and they will now show increased respect for the cyclists they encounter on streets/roads.