‘Woman kicked off at me for three-word bike warning’

A woman explained that someone kicked off with her after she gave her a three-word warning while he was cycling on the same path she was walking along. They were left in a verbal altercation, going round in circles about who was in the right. 

She explained she lives in a “bike-friendly mountain town where cycling is basically a religion,” and she was cycling on a bike trail that also doubles as a pavement, and was following “proper biking etiquette”.

The cyclist explained she saw a woman, who she estimated to be in her mid-60s, walking “directly in the centre” of the pavement. 

She continued: “Not slightly off to the side – full centre stage, like she’s the main character of the trail. Whatever. 

“There was still space to pass her safely, so as I approached, I gave the classic heads-up: ‘On your left!’ Clear, polite, firm. The gold standard of trail courtesy.

“As I pass her, she leaps into the air like she’s been tasered, flails her arms, and screams ‘HEY!’ like I just ran over her cat. So I stop, turn around, and say calmly (but definitely annoyed), I said ‘on your left – did you not hear me?’ She is full-on furious. Red in the face. Finger wagging. Foot stomp energy. ‘NO, I didn’t hear you, I’m listening to an audiobook!’ she shouts, like that’s a solid excuse for nearly jumping out of her skin on a public sidewalk.

“So I respond, ‘Okay… but do you hear how ridiculous it is to be mad at me for you not hearing me… because you were listening to an audiobook?’ Her clapback? ‘Well YOU have headphones in too!’”

The woman cycling shared she did have “one earbud in,” but she “wasn’t even playing anything”. She shared she could hear perfectly fine, but the woman said: “When I didn’t move over, you should have stopped.”

The Redditor continued: “So I say, ‘Let me get this straight, I’m riding with momentum, calling out like I’m supposed to, and because you chose to walk down the centre of the path while blasting your audiobook, I’m supposed to come to a complete stop so you can keep pretending this sidewalk is your personal runway? That’s not how this works’.

“I told her, politely-ish, that maybe next time she uses one earbud or turns the volume down – because not being able to hear your surroundings is, in fact, a safety hazard. She called me rude and inconsiderate, shouted at me while I rode off, and probably mentally left me a 1-star Yelp review for existing.”

She asked whether this was normal etiquette she used, or if she was in the right for trying to be considerate.

Someone said she was in the wrong, writing: “You took it personally, stopped, and made a whole argument of it when you could have just kept going and this whole situation would never have existed.

“I’ve been startled by bikers many times while walking with headphones. It happens, and you make weird, surprised noises sometimes. But I’d absolutely be weirded out and defensive if they stopped to harass me about it.”

Another agreed, saying: “Exactly. Getting startled while wearing headphones isn’t unusual, and it doesn’t need a full debate in the middle of the path.”