MikeF wrote:What's the point of shouting?? What is your aversion to a bell?? It's many times more audible than shouting and used properly it should rarely startle anyone. If you used a bell on shared use paths you'd realise that it can be heard (by most people anyway) at a considerable distance. I find it advantageous; it gives people 10secs or so warning (and me time to slow or react if they are deaf). How much warning does your shouting give them?? What's more, people very frequently thank or acknowledge the use of a bell.
(Never use it near a horse rider though, but then I see idiot cyclists racing by equestrians with disregard to anyone's safety.)
I've had negative reactions to a bell,and on two occasions having had to move my hand away from the brake to use it(drops),almost couldn't stop even though I was going slowly at the time.
That's why I removed it.
I find the vast majority of people are open to the human voice and more often than not I'm thanked for slowing down and letting people know of my presence with an ''excuse me'' or ''could I get past please'' or even ''ding ding'',of course you can't please all the people all the time and occasionally I have someone ask where's your bell,even though they've heard me speak,to which I usually stop and explain that I don't need one if they can hear my voice.
I try to be courteous and slow down for pedestrians and always alert horseriders to my presence in good time from a distance with a friendly shout of ''hello cyclist'',giving them plenty of space when passing,which I'm always thanked for,as someone posted up thread,horseriders tend to be courteous bunch.
The people who don't hear my shouts are usually iPod wearers,gaggles of school children otherwise occupied,and older couples occasionally all of which need extra care until I'm sure they're aware of my presence.
Occassionally some people are I'm sure deliberately obtuse,I've experienced this even when using a bell,though I can't prove it of course. groups of walkers(boots,rucsacks) spring to mind.
One group sticks in mind(all male fifties/sixties) as I approached from behind on a wide stoned up bridleway,I slowed and asked could I pass from about 5m,no response,again a little louder,a third time one of them turned around and said ''one of us could be deaf'' which seemed a strange response,but I thought I'd play along.I stopped and asked if they were all deaf,no was the answer,''well if one of you is deaf or hearing impaired,it would be a good walking companion and friend who would alert him to a cyclists presence'' this seemed to dumbfound them.It was clear they were just being deliberately obstructive.
Last week I was on a forest road approaching two young mothers with buggies walking side by side toward me,from a distance of 30m+ shouted ding ding,to which they singled out and allowed me to pass,I passed by at <8mph to which one of them said ''you should have a bell'' I responded with a spoken ''ding ding'' and said you must have heard me you moved over to allow me to pass.
No response.
Both these altercations,and other similar ones have been where MTBing is popular and having had an MTBer whizz passed from behind with inches to spare without a word,and similarly so when mending a puncture on a canal towpath,if this is the norm on these paths I can understand people being a bit put out to an extent,but as is the case with the ''all cyclists RLJ'' attitude,not all cyclists are reckless around pedestrians and other path users.
That said,overwhelmingly people are friendly and react positively to the human voice.
BTW, there's shouting and raising the voice in a friendly manner,I prefer the latter.