Let me first qualify this rant by granting a couple of exemptions. Firstly, I have no problem with people walking slowly if the place is not crowded, or if they can be easily circumvented (in a park, for example). Secondly, I realise that some - mainly old - people cannot walk quickly, and must therefore be accorded a degree of dispensation. However, even in this case it seems reasonable to expect ye of little speed to keep tight to the left hand side of the pavement, path or passage. If you’re driving the slowest on a motorway, you shouldn’t be in the middle lane (motorway drivers could be a rant on its own, incidentally), and surely the same principle should apply to pedestrians.
Anyway, I digress. My anger is mainly reserved for those who choose to walk ridiculously slowly and erratically. Walking in busy areas is a means to an end. Whether you’re on your way to Victoria tube station on a Monday morning or going shopping on Oxford Street on Saturday afternoon, there is no need to walk slowly. Hurry the fuck up!!! Get to wherever you’re going early and then you can chill out and have a Kit Kat - which, let’s face it, you’ll probably take about 20 minutes to eat anyway.
The worst offenders compound their dawdling with further stupidity and 3 such breeds need to be named and shamed:
1) Those who actually stop for no apparent reason, and with no warning, in the middle of a busy street.
2) Those who walk side by side in a group of 3 or more [this craze is particularly popular with tourists and 16 year old Goths].
3) Those who walk painfully slowly dragging “death trap” luggage bags slowly behind them [often spotted in crowded train stations].
nicola66
One of the reasons I left living and working in Central London. Nightly walk home over Tower Bridge or along Thames side path....horrendous for all the reason's you list above. That I was particularly unforgiving after a day at work.