Shoulder pushing? Weird post...

[GoldieSaysMeep]

Wow... you guys wouldn't last a week on the Boston subways during rush hour...

 

[mfd25wife]

If I see a collision about to happen, I just stop! They can walk into me or around me.
I too got to the point where I got sick of zig zagging all over the place to avoid people who seemed to be making a beeline towards me

I finally started doing this. I just stop and look at them until they realize I'm not moving at all. I was getting aggravated by all the kids who thought it was perfectly acceptable for me to move for them. I don't mind the little ones because they don't really know better, but there comes a time when it's time for them to learn. One boy of about 8 or so started to say something to his mother about me being rude. But, she cut him off and told him, "NO, you were on the wrong side. Walk to the right".

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

I see it all the time at my high school. They're mad at you for playing chicken with them and you didn't conceed to them.

 

[lindsroc]

wow... You guys wouldn't last a week on the boston subways during rush hour...

lol

 

[Sassagoula Billy]

Though I feel very much in touch with my feminine side, the opposite sex remains a mystery.

 

[disneyjunkie]

The butt thrust is never ever done to hurt someone, just a way too get yourself situated in a crowd so that no one can push you out of the way. It is always a preventative "stance" so that we don't get a shoulder thrust like the OP. It is a way to secure our personal space without hurting anyone. I would NEVER teach or hurt someone myself, but some people in crowds are rude and being proactive is a smart thing to do. Also, it is done when the crowd is more at an extremely slow pace or not moving. You always have those people who think that they can move the whole crowd, which you know is just NOT going to happen.[/QU I understand why it is done. I just think it's rude. Depending on the person it is done to, could cause a problem.

 

[disneyjunkie]

Wow... you guys wouldn't last a week on the Boston subways during rush hour... [/QU I was thinking the same thing about the subways and buses here. LOL

 

[mom2cookies]

ever walk through a school area when school lets out? My kids have to walk a mile to get home and the last 2 blocks they have this to deal with. Usually kids of a different school and they won't move over. My kids usually will walk around them into the street. I told them just stare straight ahead and walk to one side of the sidewalk. Not to walk in the street. IF they have a probnlem bring it to me. I lived this all my life. Anyway.... we do the same thing in WDW elderly excepting.

 

[ZehnJahren]

Wow... you guys wouldn't last a week on the Boston subways during rush hour...

It's funny; I've survived rush hour on foot in Rome (which is quite possibly the most frightening pedestrian situation on earth at any time of the day, to my experience) and Chicago; San Fran and Cologne (also bad; but it's all pedestrian in the parts I was in); but there is nothing like WDW crowds oblivious to everyone but themselves. I could and have handled the push-and-shove of many a city's worst hour, but I guess WDW just irritates me more. And I thought the pickpockets on the busses to the Vatican were annoying -- I'd take them over the group of adults who just cut me off, then stopped between my and DBF to point at a squirrel!

 

[BroganMc]

Gee you guys are wusses. I was in EPCOT on NYE when I got caught in the world's worst crowd. Complete standstill around the lake just before Canada. No one could move backwards or forwards. I mean NO ONE. Here I am in my lil' old wheelchair, sitting at a comfortably low 4 feet with my gigantic 6' cousin hanging on behind me. And the crowd is just getting thicker and thicker. Sometimes you'd get an open space and could move 3 feet forward. Others you just had to pull your hands and feet inside to protect them. And heaven forbid anyone come in contact with your chair's joystick sending you careening into the crowd. I managed it the way I always do: with patience and good cheer.

You learn to handle crowds when you drive a wheelchair or scooter. Sometimes you have to weave to avoid collisions. Other times you stop dead and let the crowd disperse around you. You try to keep a straight path as much as possible but always know pedestrians never walk in a straight line: they drift to the side. And you keep your wits about you, always watching for the darting little kids, backwalking photographers, "Omigod that's the XXX" sudden statues as well as the "Make Way I'm So Important" rammers.

In fact, I think driving a set of wheels through a pedestrian crowd is a future Olympic sport.

 

[Chickenlady]

So true BroganMc! I love it when people run into the side of your scooter and then give you a dirty look. I've had people walk into me, while I'm stopped by a park bench or such. I'm really not that hard to miss! I feel bad for little kids. If people don't see a pooh sized woman on a scooter, what chance do the little ones have....except they are quicker.

 

[MinnieForMe]

Gee you guys are wusses. I was in EPCOT on NYE when I got caught in the world's worst crowd. Complete standstill around the lake just before Canada. No one could move backwards or forwards. I mean NO ONE. Here I am in my lil' old wheelchair, sitting at a comfortably low 4 feet with my gigantic 6' cousin hanging on behind me. And the crowd is just getting thicker and thicker. Sometimes you'd get an open space and could move 3 feet forward. Others you just had to pull your hands and feet inside to protect them. And heaven forbid anyone come in contact with your chair's joystick sending you careening into the crowd. I managed it the way I always do: with patience and good cheer.

You learn to handle crowds when you drive a wheelchair or scooter. Sometimes you have to weave to avoid collisions. Other times you stop dead and let the crowd disperse around you. You try to keep a straight path as much as possible but always know pedestrians never walk in a straight line: they drift to the side. And you keep your wits about you, always watching for the darting little kids, backwalking photographers, "Omigod that's the XXX" sudden statues as well as the "Make Way I'm So Important" rammers.

In fact, I think driving a set of wheels through a pedestrian crowd is a future Olympic sport.

It's scary when you are in a wheelchair or scooter in that type of crowd. I have a tiny scooter. We were in something similar over the summer at a local zoo. A show had just gotten out and we were surrounded by families. One mom had her 1 year old walking and she was lower than my view in the thick crowd. Thank God, my husband walks right beside me, saw her and shouted "Stop Michelle". I stopped, the mother yanked her off her feet and an accident was avoided. But I hate to think, even at a snails pace, that I could have bumped her. She was so tiny and after apologizing (even though nothing happened, I was shaken). Now, in a crowd, I'll have my 13 year old walk in front of me with my husband and other children to the side.

 

[mcd2745]

Wow... you guys wouldn't last a week on the Boston subways during rush hour...

so true...as I was reading the OP's post I was just thinking that it sounds a lot like my commute every morning through lower Manhattan (literally along the fence surrounding Ground Zero).

 

[SOnotLayuh]

This happens to me all the time along with the stroller push. People push their strollers into me and will just pull it back and keep pushing it into me.

That's okay, though, I turn around and smile pleasantly!

It's just the special snowflake-ness abounding.

 

[evilqueenmindy]

I'd be willing to bet the shovers are Packers fans. That kind of behavior has all the hallmarks of a Packers fan.

Is it possible to smell Purple in a throng of people though?

 

[EMom]

Yep, this was me on our trip. I was bobbing and weaving trying to avoid people walking at me, but the time came several times where it was like "look, I'm walking in a straight line here with one other person; you're walking in a straight line with six. I ain't moving this time; I'm tired of it" and ran into a couple of people. It's funny how something like that can wear on you. Or DBF and I would be holding hands walking RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER, and someone would break apart from their group and then go between us. WTH, we were off to the side! Why would you do that!!?

Yes, I bumped a few people out of irritation.

Yeah....this happened to us in December. There are 3 of us and we usually don't walk 3 abreast, unless it's very uncrowded. Usually, we walk 2, with one behind, or even single file, with me in front, DD11 in the middle and DH in back. And we're to the right.

But over and over, we encountered groups who just had to walk 4, 5, 6, even 7 abreast....which meant that even if they started out on the left, they ended up on our side because they took up so much space. We got tired of having to dodge them, and I admit it, I am feisty. I refuse to move on principle. Many times I just stop and give them the hairy eyeball and they had to dodge me.

However, one day it was raining and we'd put on those flimsy ponchos. We were walking single file on the right, with me in the lead. I'm short, barely over 5 feet tall, so maybe they think they can blow past me, but that's an error in judgement on their part. Anyway, I had my arms up so I could hold the hoodie part of the poncho on my head (it was too loose to stay up on its own) so picture me walking around like I had chicken arms.....elbows sticking out in front of me up high, at an angle. I see 6 or 7 youngish men in their teens to early twenties heading toward us, and yes, they are 6-7 abreast, taking up almost the whole walkway. There really is no place for us to go. Maybe if I'd put down my elbows and made myself small I could have avoided a collision, but my head would have gotten wet and it was dang COLD.

So I just kept going. I mean, the one on the edge saw me. I guess he just expected I'd move for him as we got closer. But I didn't. And so, we collided. Or more to the point, my elbow jabbed the bejeezus out of his arm. As I passed him, he loudly yelled, "OOOOOWWWWWW!!!!!" DD11 said, "I think you hit him." DH just LHAO. He knows me well enough to know that by then, I'd had it with being bulldozed by people who feel they MUST walk in a row, like the freaking Monkees walking on the beach singing their theme song. He'd had it too. I told DD he could have moved, but he didn't, so he'd made his choice.

If our family of three can manage to not hog the walkways and we just want to get by without incident, it's not too much to ask that we not be forced aside by those who are too rude to share space. At some point, even normally polite people decide to stand their ground......and sometimes elbows are involved if it's raining.

 

[Wadecool]

I have had a group walking side by side like that nearly run over my DD3 at another park and DW and I were not pleased and I said something to the effect of "hey you almost just trampled a toddler", and they just turned and chuckled at us. We let it go and just went on and wouldn't you know later on we were walking down the walkway and here came that same group again. I told DW to hang back with DD a few steps right behind me and we walked straight through the middle of them and held our ground. Needless to say, no one was laughing at that point. People that do stuff like that are the same ones who can't stand to be passed on the interstate.

 

[nilla]

Is it possible to smell Purple in a throng of people though?

Can't say, but you can certainly smell it in my post

 

[sdzman]

I have seen this type of thing happen in AK often. I think it's a combination of things; bottlenecks, unfamiliar layout, confusing signage..... People always seem to make sudden stops right in the middle of a walkway and push through crowds like scared cattle.

 

[Ro Z]

Why am I always the one who has to slow down and step behind the person next to me to avoid a collision? Then speed up to catch up with my group. Oh Ya I know why. Because if I didn't I would get run over by someone who is in their "its my own little world" frame of mind. We own a summer business and lately this is how we find people these days. I'm having fun and I don't care if I am bothering the people around me.
I just don't get it!