Originally Posted by
Branko D
Do you honk every time you overtake another car in your car? Of course not, that'd be preposterous. You overtake if you can do it safely, and brake if you can't.
I see zero reasons for cyclists to go ding every time they overtake another bicycle, car or whatnot. If the situation is dicey, I brake.
I carried a bell for quite a while until I realized my hands went to the brakes whenever in any doubt and the bell went unused.
There is zero nuance to this approach and extending the example to automotive driving isn't illustrative at all, as piloting a cage of steel weighing in excess of a ton at high speeds would necessarily have slightly different safety concerns than riding a bicycle on a path designed for shared pedestrian/human powered machine use at lower speeds. FWIW, many states require a honk when passing traffic (like that one gets enforced outside of crashes).
Locally, our MUPs "require" a signal when passing [again, this isn't enforced unless there's some sort of crash]. I have better results when I ring a bell prior to passing, though the weight weenies will eschew a bell and just call the pass out. If I'm not sure I can pass safely I'll slow until I can, just like you. So what do you do when the situation isn't dicey, no signal at all?