Riding a bike is not very sociable. Not that you can't ride with others, but you can't really talk to them as you go, unless you are in a place where you can ride side by side, and where the wind doesn't take the words out of your mouth.
You certainly can't chat with pedestrians while riding, though you wouldn't know it from the number of cyclists who shout "On your left!" or “On your right!” as they zoom past walkers on a bike path. Do they really consider this some kind of social interaction?
The best way to communicate with pedestrians is with a simple and inexpensive bell on the handlebars. Usually when I give my bell a little ring, people walking up ahead of me instantly move to the side, without even needing to look around.
I remember an exhibit in the Boston Museum of Science which tested your reflexes to find out whether you reacted more quickly to sight or sound. A ball was dropped into a tube at the same time as either a flash of light or a beep, which was your signal to grab a handbrake and stop the ball. Measurements along the side of the tube indicated how fast your reflexes were.
The results: People react much faster to sound than to light. Your eyes require more processing than your ears.
Verbal logic requires even more processing than the eyes. I specifically recall one time when I was walking along a bike path, lost in thought, and suddenly heard a loud voice behind me. The first realization that interrupted my thoughts was the fact that somebody was shouting; then it occurred to me that the shouting was directed at me. It took a moment to decipher what had been shouted at me ("On your left!"), and finally I managed to work out that if the cyclist was on my left, I had to move to the right. This all took precious seconds while the cyclist was bearing down on me. It’s quite a chain of calculations, any of which could go faster or slower with different people, and all of which totally interrupted my train of thought. It took another minute to get back on track with what I was thinking about, once the cyclist was past.
By contrast, when I hear a bicycle bell, I instantly know what it is, what's going to happen, and what I should do. It's a pleasant and friendly sound, which isn't always the impression left by someone shouting at you from behind. I don't even really have to stop my thoughts to deal with a bicycle bell.
One time when I was riding on a bike path, I spotted a horde of third graders walking up ahead. I slowed down and began ringing my bell furiously. Everyone knew to get over to the right. The two teachers walking with the kids tried to help corral them, but the kids already knew from the bell what was happening and what to do. I slowed down but never had to stop or veer off onto the grass to bypass the group.
Imagine what would have happened if I had not had a bell. I'd have shouted "Coming up on your left!" over and over, and the teachers would have been shouting and pushing at kids to move to the side of the path. One thing to know about kids is that when someone shouts at them, they don't always hear the words very well because they're wondering what's wrong and whether it was their fault! A certain level of panic is inevitable. Without a bell, I probably would have had to stop, get off, and walk my bike, so as not to hit a stray, confused third grader.
Recently I was walking my dog, and met another dog on the bike path. I spoke with the other dog's owner for a few minutes, and as the two dogs finished sniffing each other, I backed away, encouraging my dog to come along, when all of a sudden a cyclist shouted something I couldn't actually understand. It was probably "On your right" but all I heard was a shout, just before the bike started cruising past us. But the other dog got scared and nearly ran in front of the bike. The cyclist stopped short and started cursing at us for not keeping our dogs under control. Of course we were ticked off that the cyclist nearly ran over one of our dogs. Not the nicest interaction, and to my mind, totally unnecessary.
Imagine if that cyclist had used a bell. The two of us walking our dogs would have grasped what was going on immediately and handled the added complication of an approaching bicycle. I wouldn't have backed away from the other dog as I had started to do, but instead would have dealt with the emergency and got out of the way of the bike first. The cyclist would have remained calm. Keep in mind that having to shout at people, without being sure they hear and understand you, can cause anxiety on the part of the cyclist as well as the walkers.
I do not know why so many cyclists don't invest in a bell for their handlebars. One person told me he felt that talking to pedestrians was a more direct form of communication. It isn't. It's invasive shouting. By contrast, a bell is pleasant, and most importantly, it communicates the situation instantly, by sound. And we know that our ears have much better reflexes than our verbal processing (I haven’t mentioned the problem of different languages!).
Maybe a bell is not cool enough for some people, but that's a pretty poor excuse for disrupting pedestrians on a bike path. Cyclists want drivers to share the road, but don’t always seem so happy to share the bike paths.
But, as we can see, there's a simple solution. Bicyclists, get a bell!
After writing this, I came across a news report of a bicyclist shouting “on your left” to an 81-year-old woman, who turned around and said “what?” while moving to her left. She was hit by the bike and died of her injuries after hitting her head on the ground.
Interesting. I never have trouble with people hearing my bell. Could you put on a louder one? Did you have different responses to it in different places as you rode across the country? In Scotland, they've had a law requiring that bicycles be sold with bells!
I have a bell, but rarely use it because too many people ignore it. But, I also don't like "on your left," either. It does take more time to figure out which way to react. I usually tell people that I'm coming behind them and go slow enough to let them figure out what they're going to do, especially when kids are involved. Cyclists just need to be more mindful. I don't know if being on the other side of the country makes a difference in people's reaction.