Slow down?
This.
How fast would you suggest? I’ve been knocked off my bike at walking speed, having rung my bell several times, by someone walking along staring at her phone, then just walking in front of me as I got level with her! The compensation was she dropped her phone as she fell on top of me and smashed it. She never said a word the whole time, just turned around and walked away.
“excuse me”
“Excuse Me”
“EXCUSE ME”
“EXCUSE ME!”
Turns around startled and takes out ear-buds
“Ah, you scared me!”
Yup! Bell as well as calling out and the same response.
Then there’s that added to the uncontrolled dogs or ones on 10m leads. Had someone the other day hear my bell and tell me his dog (20m further on) won’t hear it as it’s deaf ?
*sigh* – That could be me ten-fifteen years ago riding the Sustrans path along the Kennet & Avon Canal. There’s a certain irony in that Cyclebag, as Sustrans was twenty – thirty years ago restored the towpath for cyclists from Bath east towards Devizes having already done the Bristol – Bath railway line, and then the pedestrians demanded cyclists be banned from using *their* path!
As well as a bell I also carried a Fox40 sports whistle, allegedly the loudest whistle on the market designed for referees in the huge American sports domes, and still people seemed not to hear it!
I had people get cross because I rang a bell, “because it’s rude”, I’ve had others complain because I called out “excuse me”, ‘cos I should be using a bell…
One bloke with a dog on a lead in front of me, on a busy stretch coming into Bradford-on-Avon, who I’d been following at walking speed because it was so busy, suddenly let his dog run in front of me as I started to pass having rung my bell, causing me to grab my brakes and stop doing a small skid on the lose gravel told me I was going too fast! My answer to that was that I’d been following him for the last hundred feet or so at the same speed he was going at, he should be controlling his bloody dog because of all the other people, dogs, children, and cyclists.
To which he had no answer.
I haven’t ridden the K&A for years, I doubt very much it’s got better, considering the number of people in Bath a couple of days ago who would look straight at me then walk directly across in front of me, in one case almost barging into me, or else would be walking towards me, phone in hand, staring in a completely different direction with no regard to anyone else. Many are tourists and don’t consider that they should be looking out for others, but it seems to be a global problem, like those defacing monuments, killing themselves taking selfies, dissolving themselves walking into hot acid springs in Yellowstone Park…
And breathe.
