I was reading another thread and one of the posters mentioned how he had called out "on your left" at 15M and again at 5M and the kid on the bike turned into him as he came by. In my opinion, "On your left" means NOTHING to anyone but another (seasoned) cyclist. I find on the MUP that if I call "On your left" to a walker, they always tend to look down at the ground to their left and then swing around and look. I find it works better to call out "I'm going to pass you on your left." To call "On your left" to a 12 year old kid has the same effect as calling it out to the lady with the beagle on 25 feet of retractable line....NONE. They just don't know what to do, or what you intend unless you express yourself with more than three words.

Just my observation after a couple years of riding MUPs and Trails and road.

Tractor Tom in Okeechobee, FL

True. When I ride my route to Stone Mtn, most of the people (pedestrians) either don't understand what it means or move directly in front of you. Everyone on the Withlacoochee Trail (Florida) understands it.

I got in the habit of yelling "Runner Back" when I ran HS cross country, at practice, and have always yelled out "Bicyclist Back" at ~ 15 meters and again at ~10 meters. Seems to work well along with slowing down to a crawl so I can bail out if I need to. Just my old dog habits, I suppose.

Bill

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.

This is one thread the rears its head every few months, with LOTS of different opinions. Perhaps the single best bit of advice I got from a seasoned bicycle messenger in Philadelphia last summer was this:

Make a real effort to alert people, be predictable, and realized that to some extent it doesn't matter what you do; some people just won't understand. There will be accidents.

I've thought about his advice as I've ridden the portion of a MUP I use on my commute, and think he's probably right. I've heard about every variation of an alert you can give and seen about every kind of reaction with little or no relationship to the particular alert. Perhaps the only exception to this has been the three people I see on a regular basis (all riding alone) that use whistles hanging from lanyards around their necks. Whenever, I've seen them blow those whistles as an alert (and they are loud) people tend to stop dead in their tracks. No move to the left and no move to the right. The interesting thing is that about half of them are annoyed that someone blew their whistle at them. I guess even this idea won't work well with a deaf person of someone with their music turned up too loud (of which there are quite a few). So, I go back to the bike messenger's advice.... make a real effort to alert people and realize there will be accidents no matter what you do.

I'm from the "I'm going to be passing on your left side" school. Even that does not have the expected result sometimes. People (including slower bikers) often startle at the first sound because they were totally unaware that I was there. In this case, it's still a nice phrase because they quickly realize that I was trying to be polite and informative. Many however are wearing headphones and will not hear any warning at all. For those I just slow to minimum passing speed an hope that they won't jump the wrong way.

I have a mirror even on my dirt bike so that I can see behind on the trail. Even so I have been startled once or twice by bicycles going by at a high rate of speed that I was unaware of. It happens, so I understand the plight of those I'm passing.

It can be interpreted as "move to your left" and that is bad. Sometimes the English language just leads to confusion:

In my line of work I'm always saying "read the smallest line that you can read". To some people that means "read the smallest line". And there is nothing you can do to make them understand.
And my favorite: "second from the top". Some people interpret that as 2 down from the top(meaning the 3rd item, not the 2nd).

I am always on guard as to how people interpret what I say.

Even with other cyclists you have to take care. My hearing is not the best, and I may not hear a rider coming up behind me. With runnners, walkers, or hikers on a MUP, it is best to take care, slow down, and say "passing on your left"

I just hit my Hello Kitty bell and ring it for all it's worth.

"On your left" is secret code, known only the initiated. Since there's no initiation required to use the bike path, it's silly to expect everyone to know what it means.

I'm in favor of plain English. "Bike passing" says it without confusing anyone.

That's if they can hear you over the iPod…

I've found a bell works the best for pedestrians, "on your left", of course, for cyclists. Nothing work with a hooded, iPod-wearing ped. As far as kids on bicycles are concerned we just slow way, way down. We're on a tandem which is not as maneuverable as a single and could cause a lot of damage. We wave when we go by and the kids usually get a kick out of the big bicycle. We generally just do a 14 mile section of MUP as a change of pace, early in the am, and don't encounter much traffic.

If the person I'm passing appears to be an experienced runner, I'll call out "on your left". Usually those folks are somewhat over to the side anyway. If they are the family out walking the dog, I'll generally go with the more descriptive "PASSING on your left", with lots of reaction time allowed for. Many are the times someone doesn't think I'm talking to them and I have to call out again.

On multi-use trails I personally believe if you're going faster than someone else it's your responsibility to figure out the passing maneuver and it's your fault if there's any collision. If I see walkers with ipods I slow to nearly their speed and pass very casually. There's no need to be in a hurry to blow past people. If you are in a hurry, take the roads. Think of it as great exercise to accelerate back to your preferred speed each time.

^^^This. No way around it.


A lot of folks in my cycling club -- especially (surprisingly) the "A Level" riders -- have started using a bell as a warning device. It's pretty funny seeing these badass top-of-the-line racing bikes with a little metal "Hello Kitty" bell mounted on the bars...but I've noticed pedestrians can't help but react favorably to the warning from behind. How can you get annoyed by the almost benign but definitely audible "ding-ding-ding" coming from a bell?

*loudly* - "passing on your left"

+1, especially take the roads, but fortunately my usual roads along MUPS are not bad for cycling.

My cyclists' version of the Golden Rule is "Do unto the Pedestrians as you would have the Cagers do unto you."

Not only do I holler out the traditional "On Your Left" but as I pass by I add "Thank You" even if they did nothing at all. That "Thank You" gets lots of happy smiles in my Look Back Mirror. And I'm sure it promotes good will.

MUP's can be real tricky at times! There is a huge variety of users on the MUP's in and around Seattle WA. The users who spook me the most are the pedestrians out walking their dog on one of those looooooooong retractable leashes (no telling where that dog might go!!) and the hotrod cyclists who whiz by un-announced with an iPod turned up HIGH!!

The latter group is very worrisome since clearly they don't give a ****. Disclaimer - I tend towards the "hotrod cyclist" bent but - I always announce and my iPhone is never plugged into my ears while cycling on a MUP.

forgive me for thinking this is funny, but a WALKMAN?!?

I used to use "Passing on your left", and now sometimes still do, but I have a bell now and tend to use that more (occasionally saying something too). If they actually move over, I add "Thank you" as I pass.

Exactly! I use "passing on your left" and a bell that I use to warn others from 30 yards back, then again at 10'ish. As I am passing I will let the person know how many of us in the group as some are fooled into thinking one rider, "4 of us, thank you!" I find most, even non cyclists know what the bell and verbal means but some don't. That is where you have to be smart enough to make corrections. Some riders look down between their legs when I ring the bell. Some have told me that they heard the bell and thought something had fallen off their bike. This is from a few cyclists I have encountered. So knowing even a rider can be fooled, I have to know non cyclists may be fooled as well so I take extreme caution while passing non cyclists, children, skaters, stroller, and kids!

I recently did a 71 mile ride with 3 other riders that really don't ride trails much. Many other users, 71 miles, not one accident, close call or mishap. Unfamiliar trail to me and you can bet we slowed and took extra caution around kids, strollers, skaters etc. Anyone who thinks a collision is unavoidable is foolish.

This was posted in a ride report by one of the riders on a cycling forum. One can impress other riders by using common sense, keeping the eyes open, paying attention and being a smart rider.

There are experienced riders and there are foolish riders. I love these types of comments coming from other experienced riders:

There were a lot of people on SGRT today. There were bicyclists, rollerblades, runners, dog walkers and wondering soles. So riding with this group was good because they make verbal calls, use hand signals and realize conditions forming up as you ride that can setup for a problem and adjust for it so as not let it become a problem. That is experience. And Mr. Beanz uses a bell on his bike.

Stats from the ride. You can see 30 mph max speed. Run cursor over the timing chart, lots of 19-24 mph speeds. Then the speed drops down to 2 mph at certain points. More than likely where we encountered kids and families making our way by safely knowing how unpredictable they are.

https://connect.garmin.com/activity/150595312

On my commute about 75% of the pedestrians I encounter walk on the left side of the path, facing the "wrong" way. Does anyone else encounter this?

I just pass slowly and cautiously without yelling anything because I absolutely hate it when someone yells at me. By the time I parse what they said, they're long gone anyway.

I say "Passing on your left." What is really annoying is riding on the road and some idiot, adult idiot, on a bicycle is coming at me going against traffic.

Yes. It all stems from walkers being encouraged by the law to walk in the opposite direction of traffic on the road. Stated as being safer. But in fact it is so that if a ped sees a car coming close, he can move out of the way.

On a bike trail, I've read several rules of several trails and it is stated that nobody should impede the flow of traffic. Of course this does but so do cyclist that stop on the trail looking for their cell phones so it's hard to mention one without the other.

So the walkers figure the same goes for the trail. Some of it stems from being buzzed by riders which I have seen so I can sort of understand why they do. I myself ring my bell from far back in an attempt to avoid startling walkers etc. I get LOTS of thank you's for doing so!

My solution is to avoid MUP's and ride on the road. As obtuse as drivers can be I feel safer with them than on the MUP.

I yell out "Bike Behind" from about 30 yards. If they hear me- they look behind and if they don't look I have time to yell again.

Doesn't help with one rider we have on our MUP and the Regulars Know him. He Has a Jersey with "I am Deaf" printed on the back. He keeps his line and is the ideal one to pass. Always well to one side of the path and "NEVER" deviates from his line. Problem is that His Mum can't keep up with him now and he is only about 10 years old.