Walkers in the runners-only lanes. It's so common.
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I normally run on the sidewalk or a mixed use outdoor track, so no experience with indoor tracks, and plenty of experience with running around people, but that definitely sounds extremely irritating. I don't understand why someone walking would even want to walk in a running lane if lanes are provided for walkers. Unless I'm missing something it really seems like there's no reason but to be rude and entitled, which would drive me crazy.
Related, I used to ride my bike a lot on a very popular mixed use path (I mostly don't now during prime time, which is the weekend in late spring through fall other than early or bad weather, and about 5 to dark on weekday evenings, time time of year). Runners would usually be careful about bikers and stay to the side where it was easy to pass, but I was always surprised by how many walkers (not so much exercise walkers but people out strolling, often tourists) seemed to think it was totally cool to take up the whole path and pay 0 attention to who else they were sharing it with.1 -
I'm constantly amused at the people that don't know to walk/run/meander to the right side of the trail. It's like they want to play a game of chicken.1
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MelanieCN77 wrote: »A little bit of order solves so many problems before they start when a lot of people have to share spaces.
EXACTLY. A lot of people don't understand this. So what if there aren't any runners around at that specific moment? The rules exist to prevent those problems from ever developing.
People also underestimate how contagious disorder is. If you ignore the posted track signs, this encourages others to do the same. They'll say, "Oh, nobody really cares about these rules after all" and then choose to violate them as well. This sort of attitude snowballs to the point where the rules become nigh meaningless.
I mentioned that I gently confronted one woman recently, pointing out that she was in the wrong lane. She yelled back, "I KNOW! Tell that to the hundred other people who're doing the same thing!" This was obviously an exaggeration, but it also shows how disregard for the rules prompts other people to feel justified in ignoring them too, just because they can.4 -
One woman at a nearby rec center keeps straddling two lanes -- one for walking, one for running.deannalfisher wrote: »i'd run into them personally - oh sorry was doing sprints and didn't see you (that whole tunnel vision thing)
the same goes for swimming pools and lap swim - the one pool i swim at has lanes identified as S/M/F - i showed up to do a swim test one weekend and there was like 1 guy in the fast lane - i figured since i was doing a test, it would work...i lapped him 3 times in the space of 8 minutes...fast was nowhere in the definition of the speed he was going - and i nearly hit him several times because he was almost swimming middle of lane (pool prescribes circle swim)
This might sound unkind, but I wonder if she has some sort of mental issue. It's one thing to not notice the track signs or to deliberately ignore them. Consistently walking right in between two lanes, though? That's just... strange.
She may be visually impaired and walking on the line so she can see it, the same way some drivers (who definitely shouldn't be driving) hug the line when they drive.1 -
There's a small number who don't know the rules or why they are there.
There's a smaller number who simply want to create as many problems as they feel the world gives them - payback.
These lanes are established as "passing lanes" so that everyone knows that slower traffic stays to the right - faster traffic to the left - and the far left is for passing only.
Most people bow to public pressure, but there's that annoying self righteous few who need to be reminded by someone in authority to follow the rules or leave.1 -
People are in their own little world and oblivious to the presence others, the need to resoect others, or the need to create order. Staff don’t want to be proactive in enforcing because it is personally uncomfortable for them and they don’t want to risk offending that member.
I am almost positive these are among the same people who use their cell phones in the locker room. When you point out the NO CELL PHONE USAGE sign 6 ft away they say they didn’t think it applied to ____. (Whatever specific activity they were going at the moment.) When I complain to the desk, I’m encouraged to come out and report it so they can have a female staff member check on it. Well, that doesn’t help because usually I’m in some state in undress when it happens and even if I did do this, it’s several minutes til they can send a staff person in. The membership director recently shared that they’re being more proactive to go over this rule with new members. They now have an electronic member feedback kiosk so every time this happens I’m reporting it. I haven’t used the track much lately, but would definitely do the same thing for lane violations. It’s rude and dangerous because someone can step in front of you at any moment.
Most people don’t know or care how to live in harmony with others.1 -
In my community, the narrow sidewalks are like a perpetual game of chicken. Who will yield? The 8 year old on a bike? The dog walker? The couple walking? The parent with the stroller? So you drop into the street to run and people complain about that.
My teens assure me that this level of frustration with side walk right away moves me solidly into 'cranky old person' territory. I'd think it was funny if it wasn't so annoying.5 -
On a related note:
For the love of Pete, please walk on the right hand side of corridors and do not cut the corner diagonally.
I literally got ran over at work the other day coming around a corner by someone from another department who apparently does not understand walking etiquette. I was on my right side, making a right handed turn, he was making a left handed turn and apparently was in too much of a dang hurry to stay on his own side of the hallway. Crunched right into me, knocking me into the wall, lucky I didn't end up in the floor. Looked at me like wtf was I doing there, didn't apologize or ask if I was okay, just grimaced and walked off like he was pissed off.
This was an extreme example, but I work in a hospital. We have wide hallways (rules about clearance), so in general, room for all to pass. I understand people are busy and often preoccupied; I am too. But just observe right of way and everyone would be safer.
This is also one of my pet peeves in busy public places, like airports for example. Stay to your right unless you need to go to something on the left. There is always that one person (or group), completely oblivious while walking against the flow of foot traffic.6 -
You should go work out at a Planet Fitness. I hear they are good about enforcing their rules there.8
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Here in blighty we walk on the left, sword arm nearest to middle in case a duel breaks out.13
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Came across another such walker last night--talking on her mobile phone, no less. As I said, this is ridiculously common.
To her credit though, when she heard me exclaim, "Oh, come on!" she promptly moved over to the walkers lane. As I passed her, I said, "This lane is for runners only. The sign says so." and I pointed to one of the signs on the wall.
Maybe I'm being overly judgmental, but I honestly don't understand how people keep failing to notice these signs -- especially after multiple laps. Heck, in the one incident that I related earlier -- the one wherein a woman tried to report me to management -- the signs were painted directly onto the track, making them virtually impossible to overlook. Am I missing something here?0 -
Came across another such walker last night--talking on her mobile phone, no less. As I said, this is ridiculously common.
To her credit though, when she heard me exclaim, "Oh, come on!" she promptly moved over to the walkers lane. As I passed her, I said, "This lane is for runners only. The sign says so." and I pointed to one of the signs on the wall.
Maybe I'm being overly judgmental, but I honestly don't understand how people keep failing to notice these signs -- especially after multiple laps. Heck, in the one incident that I related earlier -- the one wherein a woman tried to report me to management -- the signs were painted directly onto the track, making them virtually impossible to overlook. Am I missing something here?
I don't understand the concept of complaining about someone calling you out for breaking the rules...You're breaking the rules...YOU should be the one being complained about.4 -
cougargirl1025 wrote: »Came across another such walker last night--talking on her mobile phone, no less. As I said, this is ridiculously common.
To her credit though, when she heard me exclaim, "Oh, come on!" she promptly moved over to the walkers lane. As I passed her, I said, "This lane is for runners only. The sign says so." and I pointed to one of the signs on the wall.
Maybe I'm being overly judgmental, but I honestly don't understand how people keep failing to notice these signs -- especially after multiple laps. Heck, in the one incident that I related earlier -- the one wherein a woman tried to report me to management -- the signs were painted directly onto the track, making them virtually impossible to overlook. Am I missing something here?
I don't understand the concept of complaining about someone calling you out for breaking the rules...You're breaking the rules...YOU should be the one being complained about.
The woman's beef was that I was "harassing" her. Which is ridiculous. I only told her twice (without anger) that she was in the wrong lane -- and the second time only happened because she didn't seem to hear me at first.
Twice is hardly harassment. Especially since it's now obvious that she deliberately ignored the first remark.
In fact, our final exchange went as follows:
Woman: << Snaps photo of me >> "As soon as I'm done, I'm reporting you for harassment."
Me: "All I said was that you're in the wrong lane!"
Woman: "YOU'RE HARASSING ME NOW!"
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cougargirl1025 wrote: »Came across another such walker last night--talking on her mobile phone, no less. As I said, this is ridiculously common.
To her credit though, when she heard me exclaim, "Oh, come on!" she promptly moved over to the walkers lane. As I passed her, I said, "This lane is for runners only. The sign says so." and I pointed to one of the signs on the wall.
Maybe I'm being overly judgmental, but I honestly don't understand how people keep failing to notice these signs -- especially after multiple laps. Heck, in the one incident that I related earlier -- the one wherein a woman tried to report me to management -- the signs were painted directly onto the track, making them virtually impossible to overlook. Am I missing something here?
I don't understand the concept of complaining about someone calling you out for breaking the rules...You're breaking the rules...YOU should be the one being complained about.
The woman's beef was that I was "harassing" her. Which is ridiculous. I only told her twice (without anger) that she was in the wrong lane -- and the second time only happened because she didn't seem to hear me at first.
Twice is hardly harassment.
In fact, our final exchange went as follows:
Woman: << Snaps photo of me >> "As soon as I'm done, I'm reporting you for harassment."
Me: "All I said was that you're in the wrong lane!"
Woman: "YOU'RE HARASSING ME NOW!"
If a police officer pulled her over for a traffic violation, would she report said officer for harassment?
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Based on her previous comment ("I know! Tell that to the hundred other people doing the same thing!" her reasoning seemed to go as follows: "This guy's telling me that I'm in the wrong lane. Other people walk in the runners lane too, though. Therefore, I'm in the right and he's harassing me. I should report him to management."1
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Came across another such walker last night--talking on her mobile phone, no less. As I said, this is ridiculously common.
To her credit though, when she heard me exclaim, "Oh, come on!" she promptly moved over to the walkers lane. As I passed her, I said, "This lane is for runners only. The sign says so." and I pointed to one of the signs on the wall.
Maybe I'm being overly judgmental, but I honestly don't understand how people keep failing to notice these signs -- especially after multiple laps. Heck, in the one incident that I related earlier -- the one wherein a woman tried to report me to management -- the signs were painted directly onto the track, making them virtually impossible to overlook. Am I missing something here?
Possibly, and perhaps only in some cases: The tiny and variable gap between behavior one wants to use and feels fully justified in using (or that is automatic), based on cumulative past experiences; and the behavior that in one specific current instance is most likely to achieve the desired outcome, or (being very optimistic) cumulative possibly very gradually improve the overall context.
It's not a big deal, though. And there's no ethical or moral requirement to recognize or act on the difference, IMO, so this is not a criticism, just a comment.0 -
I really do find it puzzling, but I am someone who--especially in new places--tends to be very concerned about following the rules and not going against norms, so even if others ignored the signs I wouldn't think of it. But even beyond that, and no longer personal to me, the inconvenience to others seems obvious.
Plus, do the running lanes come with rainbows and unicorn kisses or something? What possible reason would someone have for picking the wrong lane in this circumstance? It's like when the moving sidewalk is clearly marked with walking and standing lanes and someone (and this is also common) decides to stand in the walking lane. I'd love to have a concrete reason for that other than (in a few cases) maybe not being able to read English or (more often) just plain rudeness.1 -
Another thing that drives me up the wall is when runners don't pay attention. This happened to me a few weeks ago. I was running at the large park here (it has a 2.8 mile path that I use for running quite regularly). Anyway, I was coming up a hill when I saw another runner with his damn nose in his phone. I thought, clearly this guy will look up and move to his side. Where I am, you run on left side if in the street, but follow normal traffic patterns on pedestrian trails. Nope...nose was still in his phone. So, I waited until he was about 5 feet from running into me when I yelled "HEY!" Scared the ba-jebus out of him.
Another thing that pisses me off is when you are on a running path and people take up the entire path. The cross country kids are notorious for this, and we tell their coaches on them. They will run in a pack 15 to 20 strong, and take up the entire path. Granted, if no one is coming then fine. But if you have other runners and walkers on the path then keep it either single file or double file only and make room for everyone else.5 -
SchweddyGirl wrote: »Another thing that drives me up the wall is when runners don't pay attention. This happened to me a few weeks ago. I was running at the large park here (it has a 2.8 mile path that I use for running quite regularly). Anyway, I was coming up a hill when I saw another runner with his damn nose in his phone. I thought, clearly this guy will look up and move to his side. Where I am, you run on left side if in the street, but follow normal traffic patterns on pedestrian trails. Nope...nose was still in his phone. So, I waited until he was about 5 feet from running into me when I yelled "HEY!" Scared the ba-jebus out of him.
Another thing that pisses me off is when you are on a running path and people take up the entire path. The cross country kids are notorious for this, and we tell their coaches on them. They will run in a pack 15 to 20 strong, and take up the entire path. Granted, if no one is coming then fine. But if you have other runners and walkers on the path then keep it either single file or double file only and make room for everyone else.
I have a funny story about this, which happened to me on my most recent run. My husband and I were running the boardwalk at a local park, which is elevated and has a railing on both sides. It’s wide enough for two runners to run side by side but if you meet anyone coming the other direction one of you needs to fall back into single file. The local high school track team practices there.
So, here comes the track team in a big herd, all arms and legs everywhere thundering down the boardwalk, sounding like elephants, and when they come in sight of us, my husband drops behind me into single file, and they also very politely move into single file... except for this one kid, who just keeps loping along on the wrong side like he’s going to run into me.
“Get in your own lane!” “Stay on one side to pass!” the other kids on the team start yelling directions at him. So, instead of doing this, he turns around completely BACKWARDS with a big grin to look at the other kids yelling, while RUNNING BACKWARDS INTO ME.
At the last minute I came to a halt and shouted, “DUDE! ARE YOU SERIOUS?” and he spun around and just barely missed me. He had no awareness of me at all before that. His friends were all laughing at him.
Yeah, so anyway.... don’t run backwards on a shared track!
I have had running chats with the pair of coaches who coach these kids, and both are great people - which is why most of the kids knew better and were trying to teach their goofy teammate!
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Lack of trail etiquette -- in particular, refusing to make room for other people -- is surprisingly common. Mostly among hikers, but even among some runners. Heck, in one of the running groups on Facebook, I saw that a lot of people didn't understand that hikers and runners should avoid taking up the entire width of the trail.
One of the local hiking groups is really bad at this. They're a HUGE group, and they keep taking up the entire span of the path. I've seen people argue that you can always slow down when you approach them, walk past them as they make room, and then start running again... but that's dumb. They shouldn't be blocking the path in the first place.2
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