I must admit if I am out walking with my wife and small dogs on a footpath and a cyclist comes hammering along and is not polite it makes me very angry especially when my small (really small Chihuahuas) could so easily be hurt (then my wife would hurt the cyclist, nothing matters more to her!). My hearing is not great either I have had some near misses as well. A footpath is a footpath, be polite if you shouldn’t be on it, it is the least you can do or you might get a stick shoved in the spokes….