I'm not fond of bells because they seem to me to be akin to honking your horn behind the car in front of you while driving, or walking up behind a fellow pedestrian and yelling "MOVE!" I would also think a voice would be less jarring than a sudden loud bell behind you. (Bell on friend's tandem is just for when voice doesn't work. Sometimes she will still ring when she hears me say "On your left!" but I did have to let her know that she didn't have to lay on the bell hard unless I told her she needed to, lol. I don't want to run over pedestrians because they're jumping out of their skins at overzealous ringing... she was having a lot of fun with that bell but it was freaking people out!)
Originally Posted by
Miele Man
What I find very interesting on the rail-trails here in Waterloo Region (Ontario, Canada) is that ringing a bicycle bell causes most people on the rail-trail to stop and look UP! No kidding. I told a bicycling buddy about that and he put a bell on his bike and tried it and got the same result. Do people walking on rail-trails here think that the ringing bicycle bell is from ET and his friends in the sky?
Not only that, with many walkers no wearing earbuds on a high volume setting, they don't even hear a bell. I would use a boat air-horn if not for the fact I don't want to ruin the experience of those out to see critters and/or birds.
Cheers
That surprises me... so many phones have a "bell" notification sound, and it seems to be so popular, that I would think people would all look at their phones. (I've said this before but) when I bought my friend a bell for her tandem, I specifically bought one that sounded like a
bike bell. The little "ting" bells sounded very nice, but I didn't want us trying to alert someone that we were coming and instead of moving and/or looking around, they stop and pull their phone out...