I don’t tend to ding at everyone and shared pathways. If they look erratic or are blocking the path I tend to ding them, if they are walking to the left side and not erratic I tend to just go wide around them. I feel rude dinging at everyone. Although today I had a woman with a stroller decide at nearly the last second to start swerving all over the pathway, I didn’t really have time to ding - just brake. I guess the lesson from that is just to ding everyone whether they like it or not for safety.
I ride a small section of bike path on my daily commute. I just cough a few times as I approach people. Lighter, less geeky and tends to scare the pedestrians less.
I also don’t have a bell on my bike (though I sometimes wish I did.) I tend to say “excuse me” to the erratic folks that seem like they probably will respond to “on your left” by veering to their left. In the case of the sudden stroller people (and they are legion around here) a good “heads up” also works.
Interesting. Why no bell? This is the first stroller person i’ve encountered being erratic suddenly. It’s a well known busy (marked too) cycle route so most pedestrians know to walk to the left not all over the shop haha.
I would imagine that only a very small percentage of ST’ers have a bell.
(I have a bell on my touring bike and keep meaning to move it over to my rat. I like for pedestrians and casual cyclists when I’m forced onto bike paths, but in traffic it’s no match for my voice - I can yell MUCH louder and faster than I could ever ring a bell. I do try not to yell at people most of the time, but sometimes it’s just plain necessary. When I’m running in the trails I hold my keys in my hand and when I approach someone from behind I’ll loosen my grip so they jingle - that works pretty well and isn’t terribly obnoxious.)
I commute 12 miles a day on a bike-path in Milwaukee, and I find myself ringing the bell the entire time. I find pedestrians (the ones not listening to music on their headphones) appreciate it for the most part. And, it saves me the hassle of saying “on your left”–which most people take as a way of saying “please move to your left as I try to bike past you on the left.”
Whether running or cycling I try to be polite and just say Good Morning/Evening, or on your left. If I am running and someone is walking a dog, I tend to really want to make earlier awareness not to excite the dog.
I call out “coming up on your left side”, just so they don’t shift to the left, or I cough loud enough so they hear me approaching and it doesn’t startle them.