Originally Posted by
kickstart
This pretty much reflects my experiences too, some are confused by unexpected encounters regardless of the source.
To most people a bell equates a bicycle, and understand its meaning, where as verbal greetings, and warnings are more ambiguous. Having a bell doesn't render one mute, it just gives one the option to use it.
Yep, also a bell sounds like a friendly reminder whereas sometimes you may end up sounding more aggressive than you mean to, as you try to give a verbal notification that you are around.