I was trail running in Boulder once and while climbing up a rather steep hill had to step aside because some guy and his (I hope) daughter were running abreast and blocking the trail. I almost gave him a piece of my mind about the lessons he was teaching his child but there is hardly a shortage of self-involved types in Boulder and I figured he wouldn't give a shit.

I always hate when I see people setting really bad examples for their kids.

This is a huge pet peeve of mine. I will try this.

Though what to do when they are going the same direction but slower than you and are too oblivious to consider that someone might get around them?

I do the opposite, I look them strait in the eyes as I bare down on them. Most of them move out of my way. Ofcourse I'm 6'3" and 200 lbs. And willing to crash into those who wont back down.

mmm, I'm with luj... I'm from the west, and when I lived in Chicago and commuted downtown, I noticed that my natural habit of looking everyone in the eye, cause all those people gazing at the ground 6' ahead of them to move out of the way. Sometimes to cross the street. 'Course I'm 6' and shaped like a bear, so YMMV.

Hard to get them to hear me (especially if talking to each other or on the phone)...and when I do the comprehension delay...

Had a similar problem when a woman was walking in the bike lane...I whistled numerous times and she was completely oblivious. Until I had to stop short to avoid hitting her and then she told me I should watch where I was going.

I moved away from Silicon Valley in the 70's because I couldn't stand the atmosphere-- it seemed poisoned with fear and anger. Young women were especially rude, so I began playing a roadhog game with them... in shopping malls, I'd see them marching four abreast towards me, and they'd get frantic realizing I wouldn't move over.
Now that I'm MUCH older, I have the advantage of knowing that I can naturally intimidate them out of my way. If young men knew this secret, it would start a revolution.

What gets me is something I observe here at work, and occasionally at other places around town: people who meander down the middle of a hallway, going back and forth and occupying several "lanes". You come up behind them, and you pick a lane to try to pass them, and inevitably they lurch towards you when you make your move. It mystifies me since the hallways in the building I work in are busy places -- there are people going back and forth all day, and at times it's almost like a subway station.

It's simple. Just walk firmly on the side away from the curb. They can't blame you for that - and they'll have to break rank.

There was a thread here, in 2010, partly about not hogging the sidewalk with your friends or forcing people to get off the sidewalk. NumberSix said that when she stopped walking, near the edge of a narrow sidewalk, thus forcing two men to walk single file, at least one of them gave her a dirty look. My guess is that that man was used to stepping off the sidewalk for clueless women, didn't understand why women didn't return the favor, and didn't understand that he shouldn't have been that gallant in the first place. Getting hit by cars is, after all, a pretty common accident. Why should anyone have to risk it? (Besides, even when there's no traffic, it's just plain self-degrading to do that.)

It's here:

http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2010/09/01/you_see_rude_pe.html