On your left?
 

While riding through the park, I have in the past said "on your left" when passing pedestrians. This has mixed results fo me. Some people will jump to the left without thinking or looking back. Over the past couple years I have been saying "coming through" in a loud voice. It seems to work much better, since they almost always look back now. Then again, I guess I could just get a bell....

That's a tough one. A bell seems like it'd work the best, but I say "Passing on left" and it works pretty well - it at least has kept people from jumping to the left instead of staying where they are.

I recently went from 'On your left' to 'DING' and the bell is the clear winner - must make the walkers think of ice cream, they're usually smiling when I go by now.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! works pretty well too. :D


I agree though... most pedestrians won't react correctly to "on your left". That's better left for other cyclists.
Coming through, or behind you, or passing... or something like that usually works better.

I find the bell works best for pedestrians and on your left works better when passing other cyclists.

The most annoying are peds focused on their i-devices that they can literally walk right into you despite best efforts in warning them. And yes, alot of times they would be walking toward you face down. The are more a menace than cars!

I just yell out, "Bike!". Doesn't confuse anybody and seems to work for me in this area. Sometimes I think people only hear, "Left" and proceed in that direction. I also have a bell on one of my bikes and seems to work pretty good in most cases.

On your left is generally understood by cyclists. With peds, you may as well scream it in albanian. With peds, i always slow and expect the worst and say excuse me folks or words to that effect. If you pass at any sort of speed with any preconceived notions of what they will do, you are a fool.

I only say "on your left" when coming up on people that are blocking my way (taking the whole path, dog on leash, walking on the wrong side, etc) and say it loud enough and far enough back that it usually gets their attention. I make sure I give myself plenty of time to react to whatever move they end up making.

I like jingly bells for peds. Use them well in advance of the approach.
For cars its the Air Zound, hands down.

I've tried both methods and a bell seems to cause the least amount of panic or confusion. Yelling "on your left" will sometimes cause people to scoot to the left (¿no comprende?), while the bell just plain notifies them that there's something coming up from behind. It puts all of the responsibility on them (if they can hear it). If they don't look back, all I can do is assume they're aware I'm back there, deaf or plugged into their iPod.

One jogger took me by surprise about a month ago and actually thanked me for belling him as I rode by.

I often walk the same MUP (Silver Comet Trail) as I ride and I can say 100% that it scares the pooo out of me to have a bike go flying by at 20mph without ever announcing..

When I am on my Trek 7.2 I ding my superbell as far away from peds as I could reasonably think they could hear it, gives them plenty of notice that someone is coming.. On my roadbike I usually give an "ON THE LEFT" in my best command voice as far away as I would expect to be heard.. Not much you can do about the Ipods...

It is really one of my pet peeves when someone is coming up around me and doesn't bother to announce, makes me want to swerve into them on purpose..

Wow I definitely disagree- my bell worked terribly back when I used it. Sometimes I'd find myself frantically ringing it over and over and having people still blocking my way without any reaction at all. I use part of a bike trail for getting groceries and one time I remember this long line of cyclists (all part of the same group) that simply refused to move over until the people I had already passed and I finally began yelling "on your left". The frantic bell-ringing had no effect prior to the verbal yells. I think this is especially true when there is more congestion and everyone assumes the ringing bell is directed at someone else.

Pedestrians should be walking contraflow, when they do they amazingly have ample warning and time to move. Jeeze, nobody seems to know anything these days. they'll walk with traffic in the bike lane and then get ticked with cyclists when they are driving.

WRONG.

On a crowded trail that means major problems with bikes having to come to a complete stop or running into pedestrians otherwise.

a combination of the ringing of a bell (or squeaking of one of those squeaky horn things) and a cheery and loud greeting of the day (good morning!) works well on most people.

I guess peds in Fort Collins are pretty bike aware. I use the "ON YOUR LEFT" signal and they almost invariably seem to get it. The only issues I've had have been with people either not comprehending the words or not hearing at all.

Oh, and once I had a lady jogger off to the right of the paved trail so I didn't bother to signal; she suddenlyy darted onto the paved trail just as I passed, and got pissed at me for passing so close to her!
Lesson learned; I signal also to people that are off the trail but close to it, when they aren't looking at me.

I heard "on your left" on ski area cross trails a couple of decades, at least, before I heard cyclists using it. In Colorado a lot more people are skiers than most places so that could explain it too. Walkers and joggers on the bike trail near me must walk the trail a lot because they mostly respond correctly to either the verbal warning or a bell. There are exceptions of course and ipod owners are in their own ipodland, there's nothing to be done about them. By me there are a whole lot of cyclists that give no warning at all. Then at the other end of the spectrum a fair number of bikers and pedestrians will give you a little wave without looking back to let you know they heard you. If instead of sinking to the lowest common denominator we would all emulate the best practices of our fellow man and woman the world would be a much nicer place.

Ken

Athletes do understand "on your left" but how often do you observe a fully alert individual on MUP? So loud "WATCH OUT!" barked in low-pitch, clearly pi$$ed off voice works magic.

And don't even get me started on dogs on Flexi leashes in twilight...

Good Luck

SF

Riding through the metroparks around here with my son or my gf, pedestrians often thank us for ringing a bell to signal... you know, except for the ones who are blasting themselves deaf with headphones....

Airzound. Sends all Zombies including the headphone Zombies diving for the bushes to get out of the way of the train.

If I am approaching a questionable cyclist/pedestrian/rollerblader on the MUP, I call out "Passing!" when I'm about 15 feet behind them. This usually startles them and it gives them a chance to move to one side or the other so I can pass.

The worst isn't the pedestrians, is the people on bicycles who are swerving and unbalanced at 5mph. These folks are all over the MUP here, and they aren't children. There's just no choice but to slow way down until you get a good indication of how they'll react. I once shouted "on your left" to a woman on a cruiser and she panicked and stopped diagonally blocking the entire trail.

Get a bell if you regularly ride by pedestrians.

Or don't.

I've generally stopped announcing myself. Between most people wearing headphones, mis-understanding on your left, and having to slow down so much to say something they comprehend and give them time to react before me passing I've decided my best bet is to quickly pass them outside of their sudden movement range.

I prefer"passing left" after ringing my bell further away. To me, it seems clearer than on your left. Most people on my MUP, Minute man bikeway, seem to get the stay right idea.

I got a bell. I can ring it 30 feet back and they look without being startled and know I am there. For me it works much better.

+1

I occasionally come across the contreaflow pedestrian on the very well-traveled Mount Vernon Trail here in the DC area, and it's a real hazard to all involved IMO.

ive resorted to just running them down, only kidding, maybe... it does not seem to matter what i say or how early i say it i cant get people to move outta my way, sometimes when im bore and am not in a hurry i like to sneak up behind them, then up shift while really cranking on it so it makes that nice snap and scare the heck out of them i do say im sorry of coarse.