Originally Posted by Burton

LOL I just yell 'BICYCLE!' when overtaking someone from behind and base my behavior on the reaction. A pedestrian with experience will either move off the path to the right (sometimes without even turning around), or turn to acknowlege me and move over. I'll still slow down.

The ones plugged into a walkman can't hear me and do nothing. I slow down and leave the path myself cause you never know what direction they'll take when startled

Baby carriages are special cases. Anyone pushing a baby carriage or cart in either direction already has their hands full and can't manouver fast. If approaching I'll either stop and let them past or if overtaking, leave the path altogether to pass them.

If there are too many pedestrians to bicycle comfortably, there's really nothing to lose by getting off and walking the bike for a while.