Is it time to start calling out bad cyclists?

Is double irony a euph?

I have a squeaky horn, people don't know what to make of it but it's a good response for beepy taxi drivers.

Nowt wrong with a proper bell. Personally I have an old Lucas 'King of the Road' one that I find comes into its own when filtering down the right hand side of stationary traffic to warn any cheeky cyclists about to lurch out between cars into my path without looking. I also use it to alert motorists to my presence. Hardly ever use it for pedestrians except at that cycle lane just over the north of Blackfriars bridge where they are wont to linger.

However I find those modern 'ping' type bells really irritating (misused I might add, by folk trying to say 'get of of my way' rather than the much more respectful 'I'm here'). Like a whiney child, no gravitas. Maybe that's why people find bells annoying, because we've all got so used to their pithy ping instead of the glorious ding-a-ling of a real bicycle bell.

My tuppence for the bell tinging debate - I have a really loud Crane bell that I find useful on my commute. I use a significant stretch of off-road cycle path right next to a footpath, so groups of peds often straddle it preventing a safe pass.

One or two loud pings from a distance works a lot better than creeping up behind them then calling out. Gives them much more time to move out of the way and startles them less.

People who scream along shared-use paths scattering peds with a pingpingpingpingpingpingping flurry can fuck right off though. It's almost like they think they're some sort of emergency vehicle.

EDIT - Beaten to it by BobbyBriggs. Maybe we should start a club for people who dislike pinger bells and have alliterative user names?

squeaky horn

Definite euph

I'm sure you bell ringers are right (and yeah, the ringers are probably more right than the pingers). I still find it hard to hear and not think 'That bloke/blokess is an officious, superior twat'.

i might add i live and work central where it seems roads are the prefered area for pedestrians to aimlessly hang about looking upwards. A polite excuse me just doesn't work!

there are plenty of twatty ringers/pingers about that's for sure

Yeah I think the overriding point is that bells are for informing people of your presence from a distance. If the ped's awareness won't change their actions (e.g. they're already crossing the road and so everyone is obliged to give way to them anyway) then ringing the bell only serves to inform them that the ringer is a massive whopper.

A bit OT but talking of bells: I had just started crossing a road on foot as I Chrysler Voyerger was aproaching from behind wanting to turn left across my path. The driver sounded a bell sounding horn and just turned infront of me forcing me to stop. I thought fuck you. Its my understanding that once a ped (me) starts to cross a road it was their right of way. Just because you sounded your stupid bell sounding horn doesn't change that.

If you're on a side road and the Chrysler was turning into it then yes you definitely have priority as a pedestrian under Highway Code rule 170.

I often incur the muttering wrath of impatient cyclists behind me by Hackney Town Hall when giving way to peds in this way.

Yeah thought so. I'd started crossing the road too.

Wouldn't mind some cards of this to keep in my wallet to ram down the throat of the drivers that do this

My tuppence for the bell tinging

You disgust me

A squeaky cantilever front is where it's at I find.
Ding bells don't get noticed (despite pinging several times) one touch at the brake and voila, heads turn, seas part...

Le Manfriend has a ding-dong bell 4 inches across for his cargo, now if that doesn't work...

The 'get oot the way' bell ringers have scared loads of pedestrians on my route. This morning as I was coming in, I was making a right turn into a side road. There was a woman crossing from the right hand side of that road, but a bit further back than the entrance. I had seen her and was slowing down to come to a stop to allow her to cross when her friend, who was on the main road I'd turned off shouted 'Sarah, WATCH OUT!!!' causing her to simultaneously jump and freeze. I came to a stop and waved her to cross, but the pair of them were obviously alarmed at potentially having someone on a bike come near them.

I do wonder if all these bell-ringing twats make pedestrians scared of cyclists. It definitely pisses me off when I'm walking if I'm crossing a road without/against a signal and some comes charging up on a bike screaming at me to move - even white van drivers don't do that!

People who scream along shared-use paths scattering peds with a pingpingpingpingpingpingping flurry can fuck right off though. It's almost like they think they're some sort of emergency vehicle.

EDIT - Beaten to it by BobbyBriggs. Maybe we should start a club for people who dislike pinger bells and have alliterative user names?

"Fuckin bellz"

Some of them are confused followers of Descartes "I ting therefore I am". They believe the sound of their bellendery confirms their existence, though to the rest of the world it confirms their cuntishness.

Said it before, and I'll say it again, bell ringing on shared paths, probably means you're going too fast, if there are pedestrians in front work around them or wait for space to pass. Slow to their pace to pass when convenient, safe to do so, not ride up at pace, ring bell, they look startled and jump out of way, you carry on at pace.
Bell ringing now signifies get out of my way, rather than here I am.
Seen it alot on london's tow paths and parks and nothing makes my heart sink faster than when I'm riding slowly behind someone and they hear/spy me and they jump out of the way, pulling family/friends/kids/dog to the side as well, because the only other cyclists they've encountered have done what I've mentioned above.

I've got a loud voice and i use it to signify my arrival, I prefer "oi oi", and its usually followed by "careful now" because they've cheated a light, haven't looked before crossing, want to step out into my path, and even though I've seen them and attempted to anticipate what they may do, humans are unpredictable so I give them a bit of warning of my presence.

Riding bikes allows us to interact with road users and pedestrians, you can have a quick chat, tell someone off, announce your presence, share a joke, and the ringing of bells just diminishes that human interaction..

Cornelius, I've booked the registry office. I'm wearing white.

I usually give a polite and cheery "heads up" and am surprised at how frequently I'm thanked for the warning.

Tend to disagree. Bell ringing (just a couple of pings) should be done from a distance, so as not to startle people. A friendly wave or polite thank you completes the interaction.

If you are close enough to speak with people before first notifying them you are there, you are too close and could surprise and distress them.

we've had this discussion before, no point regurgitating it.
People don't use their bells as you do, they ring and ring and ring.
I generally don't speak to people on towpaths and shared park paths as I'm waiting to find an appropriate moment to get past them rather than saying excuse me to get past, I mostly say thank you, when they realise I'm there and jump out of the way, or otherwise make space for me. I'm more than happy to follow on behind them at walking pace as I'm not using the path as a shortcut or to avoid traffic, I'm enjoying the surroundings as much as they are, and I'm not in a rush to get anywhere...

Like I said, and you know I've got a loud voice and can project so the "oi oi" is used at various strengths and various distances to grab people's attention. I've been surrounded by bell ringers ringing away (approaching cycle path upto covent garden, from north side of waterloo bridge), pedestrians ignoring them, let out an "oi oi" heads are up like startled rabbits and away you go..

This debate has entered its Beatles-Stones/Deep dish-Flat crust/Hitler-Mussolini phase.
We all have our favourites. (It is, however, Stones and it is vocal communication.)

It's Lonnie Donegan and it's physical communication.