[Closed] Bells and shared paths. Again. Sorry.

aaaaaahhh..

if only there was somewhere to buy a retrospective stick through the front spokes.. 🙁

My experience of using a bell is that it is just like releasing a firework amongst birdss - walkers scatter in all direction as if panicked.

That said I always slow and never stop if the moan

Surely the bell (or lack of) isn't the issue? You're just concerned that he passed you too fast/too close?

You could have set the dog on him.

Surely the bell (or lack of) isn't the issue? You're just concerned that he passed you too fast/too close?

I always slow right down and say good morning/afternoon and can I squeeze past? I have a bell, it just feels rude to use it.

'too fast/too close'

People do it all the time, other riders seem to think its some sort of loss of face to call out.....coming through, on left (or right)

I have bells on all my bikes. I live in the UK and almost all paths are likely to be shared with walkers, dogs andl/ or horses. The bell might not have made any difference to the way he was riding, but used sensibly, it would have alerted me to his presence and not made me, the dog and the baby shit ourselves.

Maybe when walking on a track which you share with other user groups you should try to do so in such a way as there is adequate space for cyclists to pass safely, without upsetting you.

Lemony - this is why it was a bit of a mystery - there was a good two metres of empty hardpack on my right. Iwwasn't meandering around like a zombie and the dog was walking at heel. And P.S. - troll-fail 🙂

meh bells have proven to me to be ineffective on shared use paths

ive taken to using a Hornit.

I'd pretty much always pass a "loose" dog at heel on the opposite side of its owner from where it's walking - is that what he did ?
(wasn't me and I'm just off out on the bike so haven't time for fisticuffs anyway)

Cyclist don't have to have a bell, it's NOT the law.
it is recommended to have a audio device, and you voice is audio so just say "hello" will be fine.

"It is recommended that you fit a bell to your cycle."

GOV.UK "https://www.gov.uk/rules-for-cyclists-59-to-82/you-and-your-bicycle"

The Highway Code - Annex 1. You and your bicycle - Guidance - GOV.UK

Information and rules about you and your bicycle.

GOV.UK "https://www.gov.uk/rules-for-cyclists-59-to-82"

The Highway Code - Rules for cyclists (59 to 82) - Guidance - GOV.UK

Rules for cyclists, including an overview, road junctions, roundabouts and crossing the road.

Mtb rob - no one's mentioned the law. I'm far more interested in promoting civility between cyclists and peds.As many here have said, a cheery excuse me! Will do the job. Being pleasant and polite is completely free.

"As many here have said, a cheery excuse me! Will do the job. Being pleasant and polite is completely free"
Yes total agree,

You right no one has mention the law, so I thought I would!
😀

I've had mixed responses from using the bell, most walkers/runners are OK but some seem to get annoyed
As said before, I get a better response from asking if I could squeeze through please

same here, im usually polite, unless there an arse afterwards, then i usually show them what nasty is.
i get fed up by old people asking me where my bell is, sorry i get fed up being shouted at by old people (because there deaf) where my bell is !! i usually reply its the 21 century ive gone digital and them i come out with a DING DONG. doesnt amuse them 😉

had a very close shave the other week-- i'm coming down a steep slope which then leads onto a bridge (uphill) over a busy dual carriageway--not wanting to lose momentum i pick up speed to get up and over the bridge--but lo-- coming down the bridge is a jogger with earphones, and looking down at his feet, he is oblivious to my oncoming presence-- i shoot past just-- he is startled-- could have been nasty --it was also sleeting at the time!-- i think he has a resonsibility to be aware of his environment-- this is a designated cycle route....

What if its a Tarmac path with a line clearly delineating pedestrians and bikes?
Are bells needed then?
Does this kind of path have a speed limit or can people can just join down the cycle half?

iolo - I was once accompanying a teacher from one site to another on just such a path. Two staff members were needed because there were about a dozen special needs kids with us. Some giant nobber came flying down the cycle side of the path on a green Chameleon, clearly intent on making some kind of point about the kids walking on the cycle side of the path.

Words were exchanged. And for reasons like this, it's safer to assume that there will be peds all over the path, no matter how clear the signage is.

Just the words 'where's your bell?' make my blood boil, in fact, my bike was leant up in my barbershop the other day and a red socks still asked 'where's ya bell!!!' Bellend!

I always slow down and give a greeting as a heads up to the deaf old burgers. You have the right to be annoyed by this bloke, it gives us all a bad name.

I got bored of bells breaking/falling off.
Now I just say, " ding ding". Seems to make more people smile.

I do a Tom Jones style 'COUGH!', always seems to work...

I'd still recommend the comedy horn, hard for them to get angry when you Honk as you approach and it's sufficiently different from a bell to get their attention rather than them deliberately ignore it.

This is the one I use:

[img]

Doesn't just happen on shared paths. I got buzzed by a fellow participant on a local road reliability ride yesterday. Plenty of room to do pass me on the road but he chose to pass me at speed on my right within half a metre with no audible warning. Tosser.

I always have a bell. In fact, apart from the fact that people chose not to use them to be confrontational or just cool I don't see a reason not to have one but maybe you have other reasons.
I use it to alert people gently and its great to have slanging match when some ones shouts at me "where's your bell? just because they haven't heard it.
Not always effective but its a civil way of doing things. I then politely say excuse me if they don't react.
had a moment to laugh today. Came up behind a runner. she was doing things correctly, running to one side of the track. I did ring and say hello and she slightly moved to here left even more out of the way. When I went past her though she screamed 😆
silly cow had head phones in and didn't know I was there. Pissed myself.

Over here in Germany if you use a bell with a gaggle of walkers in front of you it's like Moses and the Red Sea; as if by magic a path through the middle of them suddenly appears. All very well organized as you would expect from the Germans! 😉

I suddenly have a new respect for Germans. Junky's post ^^^ way up there has had me mulling over things all evening. And I have to disagree. Used properly, from a good way back, a bell attracts attention, unless as above, the runner is wearing headphones. It's just a case of ringing it until theiir head turns and they know you're there.

At which point it's just a case of passing safely. Of course there are those who are seemingly deliberately far too cool to actually share the path but happily they're few and far between.

Ultimately it is just polite and in my experience here in NI on my morning commute it is really well received by all other users. I would much rather use a bell and have a pleasant interaction with other canal path users than not use one and have a confrontation.

I cannot see any reason not to use one as it has to be more effective than talking or coughing and is also generally effective at a greater range and therefore there is less need to slow down.

Dogsby

it would have alerted me to his presence and not made me, the dog and the baby shit ourselves.

To be fair, the dog and baby probably didn't do that due to the bike 😆

It happens when you're on a bike on the shared paths over here, it riles me that blokes spend $5000 on a nice bike and can't be bothered to put a bell on it, or worse, ride sensibly around kids on bikes - I've been startled and fuming at how much trust they put in a 6 year old, who doesn't necessarily have the awareness of an adult as to what's around them, when they blast past at 40Km/h.

I try to always have a bell on my mtb, most of the bridleways etc near me go past the NYM Park centre so loads of walkers about.

I always try to be polite slow down but occasionally people do move towards me by accident, so its hard not skim past someone occasionally they might want a bout of fisticuffs over it but i'm generally 20 yards away by then enjoying my ride and ain't gonna stop.

I see the bell debate as a red herring. Carrying a bell and then ringing it like crazy whilst expecting all before you to doff their cap and scurry out of your way with your speed unabated is far worse than what most folk do which is slow down and use a cheery hello, allowing the pedestrians good time to find a spot to get out of your way [b]that is convenient to them.[/b] It's the slowing down and giving them time to react which is the important bit not the method of signalling your presence.

Off topic slightly - had an incident with a horse and rider at the weekend. Approached the horse and rider from behind and at 30m gave the cheery hello - no response. At 10m the same again - no response from rider but horse turned its head slightly and had obviously clocked me. I rolled slowly past and the rider jumped out of her skin in fright which spooked the horse (who knew I was there so would have been fine otherwise) who was all over the place and nearly unseated her. Rider had ear phones in and once next to her I could hear them so must have been really loud. Apparently it was all my fault 🙄

A bell is irrelevant - but some kind of warning is often necessary, I tend to slow down and give a shout out (non middle-aged).

There's dicks using all modes of transport, this is just another one of them.

I see the bell debate as a red herring. Carrying a bell and then ringing it like crazy whilst expecting all before you to doff their cap and scurry out of your way with your speed unabated is far worse than what most folk do which is slow down and use a cheery hello, allowing the pedestrians good time to find a spot to get out of your way that is convenient to them. It's the slowing down and giving them time to react which is the important bit not the method of signalling your presence.

Agreed. That said though people do associate bells with bikes so subconsciously they are already responding to the noise as a bike rather than turning to see what is coming. I DON'T use a bell (I adopt the approach above) but I will freely admit it is because I am a snob and hate the look of a bell on my bike. I do think a bell is superior to a voice - but still not going to fit one!

It's the slowing down and giving them time to react which is the important bit not the method of signalling your presence.

This is very true, although I take no chances and use a bell as well (at least I do on my town bike) this way I can always sidestep the 'where's your bell' argument..

If you're riding a lot of shared paths it's no hardship, and if you're worried about cluttered bars, just lose your thumb activated fork lock-out or whatever other marketing guff you've currently got bolted on there

red herring

Good visual marker but far too quiet. Also difficult mount on handle bars effectively.

I use a bell - but I agree it gets a very mixed response.

Some are very pleased and thank you for using it.

Some see it as rude, mutter and give you evils.

Some panic and scatter, often moving from perfectly safe positions straight into the middle of the path.

In short, I think it's good to have a bell, but I use my judgement and probably only use it on 50% of passes.

As others have said, I think it is more important to slow down, make eye contact if you can, and acknowledge and thank other path users.

I use a bell - but I agree it gets a very mixed response.

I think you need a ringadingding bell rather than a tingting bell, and use it quite far away from the people you're passing.

Think it is one of these I use. Or something very like it:

[img]

When I bought it I went through a few different bells and this one seemed to make the "politest" [i]ping-ping[/i].

I'm not a fan of the [i]dring-dring-dring[/i] type:

[img]

They always sound a bit urgent and "rude" to me.

cyclist doing a fair speed. I was on foot with a one year old on my back and the dog trotting at heel.

Why he chose to pass me on the left, where he was bound to just miss me is a mystery.

Perhaps buy a pram or pushchair, put the dog on a lead,and keep control of it, and most importantly never walk on the road as this will be a common occurance for you with motorists that will do more damage to you than a bike.

But saying all that there are some stupid bike riders out there.

Perhaps buy a pram or pushchair, put the dog on a lead,and keep control of it, and most importantly never walk on the road as this will be a common occurance for you with motorists

Hope you are trolling project? Generally speaking the road isn't intended as a pedestrian path - but a shared-use cycle path is. Bit of a difference.

So if the cyclist messed up, caused an accident and the baby ended up in hospital that would be ok because he inconvenienced the cyclist by, oh a whole 2 seconds..?

Grow up, slow down and call out to get by. The next person might be less reasonable.

Agree with some of the sentiments above. It's not the bell that's missing it's basic manners and courtesy.

Don't be a tedious troll project, read the OP's posts ie. dog at heel child on back. It is entirely reasonable that the OP should have been given some warning by the cyclist.

My experience, as an owner if 3 dogs, is that the majority of cyclists use a bit of common sense and courtesy when approaching people with dogs/toddlers/Granny etc out for a walk and slow down and pass carefully. You often can't hear a bike approaching from behind and I've had many cyclists approaching way too fast and not allowing enough time to recall the dogs.

Shared pathways are just that, SHARED and as has been said above, a few seconds here or there is nothing.

Sometimes people step left / right without warning.