I had a confrontation on the street today. So my friend and I met in my lobby and as we were exiting my building, we got on the sidewalk and walked a few steps side by side to the right of the cement. I was on the side near the grass and my friend was in the middle, when suddenly a shorter woman came walking along and she seemed to kind of aggressively set her umbrella at an angle that almost hit my friends face. My friend turned back in surprise and said woah, and the woman turned around and in a hostile tone said that “if two people are walking next to each other on a sidewalk and someone comes along, they should go single file” (to be clear the sidewalk is lined with soft grass on either side…). At this point, I stepped in to defend my friend, and said “oh come on, there was enough room and you could have taken her eye out!” She kept persisting in scolding us and so I just argued back and reiterated by point again and then continued down the street with my friend. What I didn’t even say is my friend is recovering from a debilitating back injury and moving slowly. Do you think I was at all in the wrong? I try to be conscious of manners and etiquette and I get that people are sometimes unaware in the city, but this seemed like unnecessary aggression on her part.
Edit: this was not an old/elderly lady!! She was young.
YTA
If your friend was injured then you should have been the one to move. If there’s only room for two people to walk comfortably side by side then the group divides to allow for others to pass, that’s just manners. Squashing others so you can continue a conversation is rude.
ESH. She shouldn’t have put the umbrella so close to your friend’s face, but she is right. When you see someone coming towards you and you are blocking the entire surface, you should make space for them. She didn’t suddenly appear in front of you, so you should have gone single file.
She was unnecessarily aggressive and you were really rude and inconsiderate.
ESH. She’s right, one of you should’ve gotten behind the other one. But she also didn’t have to almost take your friends eye out
ESH. She’s right. You should have moved. She also didn’t have to try to take your friend’s eye out.
She is right. You go single file , I don’t think hitting you with an umbrella is ok but you’re in the wrong. You don’t push people onto the grass, what happens in winter when it’s soft or muddy.
ESH. You should have gone single file when the lady got close, and the lady is wrong for being extremely hostile about it.
ESH. she is right, one of you should have moved. Preferably you, since your friend is injured.
She’s the AH too for her reaction.
okay I get this pov, and I know we were not in perfect sidewalk etiquette… but I live in the city and people get in my path all the time for various reasons, or sometimes don’t see me coming. that’s life. I still think her reaction was completely unwarranted and totally disproportionate to our mistake.
You missed a proper social move, but violence is never the answer. Maybe she was having a bad day?
It should have been a nothing encounter by everyone involved was in their own world and not thinking if others.
Nobody js an asshole but everyone could have done a bit better
ESH but that’s only assuming she almost hit friend on purpose – move over. There’s soft grass that you and your friend could have walked on. If she’s goling an umbrella then I’m guessing the soft grass was muddy. Why tf would she walk in it.
The other person is right: if 2 people that are travelling together are occupying most/all of the footpath, then they absolutely need to move to single file if they encounter someone else.
If anyone has to move onto grass or off the footpath, that is 1 of the 2. Not the other person on their own.
YTA – Stop shoving little old ladies off the sidewalk. Even kids know to move to keep the sidewalk clear for the other pedestrians.