More than a quarter of us suffer pavement rage with ‘dawdlers’ and ‘unbreakable groups’ classed as the most annoying pedestrians, a survey suggests.
As many as 13.6 million people – 27 per cent of the adult population – will feel their blood pressure rising when they hit the high street and find themselves stuck behind slow crowds this Christmas.
The survey found “dawdlers” were the biggest source of anger on the streets with 42 per cent naming them as their pet peeve, closely followed by large groups taking up too much space.
Shoppers who stop abruptly to window browse were a major cause of irritation as were people talking too loudly on their phones and large gaggles of teenagers.
Parents with prams, people who stop to the take photos and tourists were also named among the culprits in the survey carried out by shopping app Udozi.
Michael Batty, professor at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA), University College London, said: “During busy shopping periods, the limited pavement space available is put under pressure to accommodate an increasing density of pedestrians.
“This can be a real problem at Christmas time when large numbers of people all looking for different things tend to cluster in main shopping areas, resulting in pavement congestion, frustration and what is known as ‘pavement rage’.
“It is therefore essential for people to plan ahead and take caution when out shopping on crowded streets.”
Despite 37 per cent of people admitting that ‘busy crowds’ would be their biggest source of stress this festive season, the majority of those questioned said they still preferred to shop on the high streets rather than online.
The main reasons given were that customers like to see an item before they purchase it and that they liked the ‘buzz’ of the high street.
