The age old question. To bell or not to bell? (pedestrians).

[tcdev]

Regardless of bell, call or nothing, you're not going to please everyone and you're bound to p*ss off someone. It's simply human nature and you can't change it no matter what you do.

Personally, I ring my bell in as "friendly" a manner as possible and with as much warning as possible. I also slow to an appropriate speed and I thank them when I pass if they've made some sort of effort to assist me in passing, even if it's just stopping to the side of the path. Why? Because that's what bicycle bells were designed for and that's the spirit of the 'law'. And if anything unfortunate does happen, my defence will always be that I rung my bell and slowed down.

Yes, there will be those that think the bell is a warning of imminent collision and jump across into your path before looking around. Yes, there will be those that can't hear you because of music blaring in their ears. Yes, there will be those that completely ignore you. And finally those that will take offence and abuse you.

In my experience most pedestrians don't have an issue with it. Very few will panic. Quite a few can't hear you. Some will ignore you. I don't think I've ever been abused for it. If I have, I either haven't heard them or ignored them and they're long forgotten. If someone did actually accost me for ringing my bell, and I had done the right thing, well, they'd be biting a fair amount off.

So I'll keep ringing my bell.

[steve-waters]

As I approach I slow to enable me to stop if required. I ring the bell along with a loud and clear statement " Passing on your right". The bell and the statement seem to work 80% of the time. My reduction of speed and ability to stop quickly covers the other 20% (these are mostly due to hearing impaired pedestrians, either due to being elderly or having headphones in!)

I use the "passing on your right" all the time even when running - I find these days humans are too self involved (sorry too busy) be aware of their surroundings.

The use of the "...on your right" gives them a clear indication of where you are otherwise as mentioned chaos can ensue as a pedestrian tries second guess and does odd things.