I hate baby strollers. Of all kinds. Cheap and utilitarian, expensive and over-engineered – all the same to me. I don’t like the way mommies and daddies drive 'em. Or jam into an elevator with 'em. Or try to fold/unfold 'em in a mall parking lot.
And what I hate, hate, hate is the double-wide stroller. And the double-long stroller. And the buggy-shaped stroller that also is a grocery cart.
Oh, you need to navigate my grocer’s freezer section with that thing? Sorry! My mistake! Let me get the hell out of your way. Oh, you’re having a little trouble in the health-and-beauty-aids aisle? Why, let me pick up all the damn nail-polish bottles you’ve swept off the shelves.
Ho, ho, ho! Isn’t this fun. Isn’t parenthood a gas. Aren’t my kids cute.
Strollers have their place, but they are only as good as the people who use them, and some people are indeed very inconsiderate.
I don’t mind the grocery store stroller, but I have almost had my knees taken out a couple times by people cruising through the mall not looking where they were going.
And a special fuck you to the double-wides that clog up my bike trail as their owners wander aimlessly, apparently unaware that they’re required to SHARE the trail. What the fuck are you even doing out there with that giant thing? Haven’t you noticed the enormous traffic jam of people yelling “ON YOUR LEFT!!!” right behind you? Yes, there are other people in the WORLD other than you and your precious little angels.
I always hate to be the one to break this news, but some one has to. You see, the very fact that someone has seen fit to grace this sad little planet with the fruit of their loins by definition makes them more important than you (or me). Any inconvenience that we suffer as a result, while regrettable, simply is not important. So sorry.
You’ll probably find that it’s a multi-use trail, not your bike trail. And slower traffic has priority, which means you should slow down for strollers.
Yes, as a bike rider I find them annoying too, but they have a right to be there. I’ve pretty much given up riding my bike on multi-use trails except for social rides. It’s more fun to be on the highway where I get to annoy the faster traffic.
(I’m kidding, I don’t enjoy annoying others, but I have every right to be there and it’s not my fault there is no shoulder or bike lane.)
It is a multi-use trail, but it’s too small for that. It has a yellow center-divide line and a double-wide takes up the entire trail. Single sized ones are no problem, but anyone out there with a double-wide has to know they’re taking up the entire trail. All other joggers, rollerbladers, bikers, etc are instantly clogged around them, in both directions. I’m aware that they have a right to be there, but how about a little common courtesy - put them single-file? Carry one kid and push the other? Bring a friend with a single stroller? Find a larger trail to occupy? Their attitude is pretty much what Binarydrone says.
I might have a right to be out there with one of those four-person bicycles, but it doesn’t mean I’m going to ride it around on a smaller trail where there clearly isn’t enough room for anyone else to get around me.
I agree with Binarydrone. There are lots of ways in our society where parenthood grants higher status by the fact of fertility. That aside, folks with obstructive strollers are simply another type of insensitive arsehole.
Not entirely sure what your post meant, Case Sensitive.
I am guessing that this is some odd reference to wishing that I have a kid or something. The irony here is that I am currently doing everything in my power to adopt, so I really do want to be a father. That said, I can relate to the OP as those folks get on my last nerve.
I do get that carting a forming human around can be a lot of work. The problem, as I see it, is that too many parents seem to have this “it takes a village to raise a kid and by Og you are a member of my village that I am free to impose upon and have no say in the matter so get out of the way because I am about the important business of breeding” attitude. I suspect that most of them are Yuppie Soccer Mom types, but am still gathering data.
Oh, the stroller takes up both halves of the trail? And they have to push the stroller halfway off the path to let you pass? OK, that is pretty inconsiderate.
Still, I think I would still give up on that trail rather than complain. I have somewhere else to ride on (i.e. the roads), but the stroller may not.
Yea, people that have kids SUCK, they think they are sooooo special! Kids in general SUCK. They are so ANNOYING. Parents, and kids, should be like totally outlawed! Anyone that’s ever had a kid, or ever was a kid, should be put away FOREVER!!
True. It’s been my experience that an asshole is an asshole whether they have kids or not. If this type of person didn’t have kids, they would be behaving inconsiderately in some other manner, and the fact they they do have kids has no more bearing on their behavior than their hair and eye color.
I know some asshats who have children. Astoundingly, they were asshats before they whelped, too.
Well in my neck of the woods bikes are allowed on rural roads and city streets but not State highways or the Federal Interstate Road System. In fact you’d get in hefty trouble if you tried to drive your bike on a highway around here (a cousin of mine was fined for driving his bike far on the shoulder of the state highway, he was doing it because he needed to get gas for his car which was parked at his house on E.)
Yes, sorry I wasn’t clear - they’re blocking the entire trail. Unfortunately tihs is a trail by my office - the only trail. My other options are up and down the heavy-traffic industrial streets by my office, or nothing. They are free to use the many parks and such around here, since they’re not as concerned with distance as the others trying to get a workout.
But why beat around the bush? It should be obvious to everyone that this isn’t just about inconsiderate parents out on the trail. No, what I really believe is everything shelbo said. :rolleyes:
Judging by the reaction to shelbo over-the-top sarcasm, I can only imagine that he/she is grateful that he/she didn’t try to be subtle. Other than that, I agree with this comment:
Sadly, they are likely raising the next generation of asshats.
