Originally Posted by Herzlos

I've never used a bicycle in the US, but it seems to be a relatively rare thing. In (as far as I understand it), most of the rest of the world, the bell is the standard "caution I'm here" noise.




The tone of bells are usually pretty good for allowing people to judge direction and distance, that's why emergency services use sirens which are essentially variable tone bells.
There are different powers and tones of bells, but there are also different tones and powers of voice too. But it's also much less likely that anyone is going to be walking along a MUP ringing a bell or listing to bells on their headphones, than they are to be listening to voices.

Multiple bells can be a problem, but even with 2 or 3 bells you can still tell where they are coming from, and anywhere that busy is going to be hell with people shouting "on your left".


You may not like bells, and maybe they are rare in the US, but they are better solution in most situations.