So #BikeTooter seems very excited by this noise-cancelling headphone negating bell, but I don't get it.

[zebulonmysterioso@mas.to]

@ClintonAnderson @Cycling_Liz @pete You're absolutely correct, and that applies just as much to the person with noise cancelling earphones occupying the centre of a shared path. Having the right of way doesn't mean you don't also have to be considerate. As you say, it won't hurt you.

[anibyl@social.coop]

@pete Something is telling me that the venn diagram of people who find this bell a good idea and those not yielding to pedestrians in croswalks is a circle.

[pete@masto.hypertelia.com]

@ClintonAnderson @zebulonmysterioso @Cycling_Liz
️> ️/️ > ️️ > ️ > ️ > ️

[zebulonmysterioso@mas.to]

@pete Cyclists who expect a clear run like you're describing are a real problem, but I think most of us just want to be able to let those ahead of us know we're approaching. We're effectively the car on the country lane in this context so we have a responsibility to make the danger of our presence clear and behave safely, the same way that a pedestrian has a responsibility to share that space.

[zebulonmysterioso@mas.to]

@pete @ClintonAnderson @Cycling_Liz

Are we discussing the same thing? I thought we were sharing perspectives on a bike bell that could cut through NC to help alert someone unaware of a bike's approach (from behind them) so that the cyclist could initiate a safe and respectful overtake?

Right of way doesn't really factor in, it's sharing situational awareness.

[pete@masto.hypertelia.com]

@zebulonmysterioso @ClintonAnderson @Cycling_Liz

> … it's sharing situational awareness.

Perhaps technically yes, but the reality is that too many cyclists (and in turn car drivers) think that letting someone know they are there is necessary, and then ought
to lead to the more vulnerable road user ceding the space.

[pete@masto.hypertelia.com]

@ClintonAnderson @zebulonmysterioso @Cycling_Liz In the UK it's part of the Highway Code. https://www.motoringresearch.com/advice/hierarchy-of-road-users/

[pete@masto.hypertelia.com]

@zebulonmysterioso @ClintonAnderson @Cycling_Liz … remember when we (as cyclists) rightly lost our shit when the Ineos Grenadier SUV included a button specifically for tooting it's horn at cyclists?

[pionir@masto.bike]

@pete @ClintonAnderson @zebulonmysterioso @Cycling_Liz

This image does not illustrate what you (or I did until recently) think it means

Why pedestrians don't have priority on shared paths and shared spaces

Every time a video of a cyclist and a pedestrian on a shared route appears online, the same comments flood in.

West Yorkshire Cycling (westyorkshirecycling.co.uk)

[pionir@masto.bike]

@ClintonAnderson @pete @zebulonmysterioso @Cycling_Liz

Agreed, but this was not the point of my post.

[plookington@mastodon.sdf.org]

@pete
On the shared path, pedestrians tend to take up the entire path, failing to consider faster traffic behind. They forfeit their "priority" when disregarding other path users.

[bongotwisty@social.vivaldi.net]

@pete I'm shocked there is no graphic for dog walkers. I was of of the understanding that they can ignore everyone else with impunity.

[pete@masto.hypertelia.com]

@ClintonAnderson *mounts fog horn on front rack*

[pete@masto.hypertelia.com]

@BongoTwisty Funnily enough, while slowing for them, I always tell (the nicer) dog walkers that their beasties will always have priority no matter what the Highway Code says. I reason that many people hates dog walkers as much as they hate cyclists so we should stick together.

[bongotwisty@social.vivaldi.net]

@pete Quite right too.

[pionir@masto.bike]

@ClintonAnderson @pete @zebulonmysterioso @Cycling_Liz

I usually slow down if I shared spaces, and most pedestrians will move to the side of paths and bridleways, so it's rarely an issue that I encounter, but I've had pedestrians shout at me variously:

Use a bell
Stop ringing that effing bell
Get out of the road
Get out of the cycle path (!)

Being a pedestrian doesn't absolve people from "don't be an arsehole"

[pionir@masto.bike]

@BongoTwisty @pete

Isn't the last one just "dogs"

[bongotwisty@social.vivaldi.net]

@Pionir @pete Because rules are rules in the absence of consideration and common sense...

[jtwcornell91@hostux.social]

@nickzoic @pete speaking as both a pedestrian and occasional cyclist, it seems like a headphone-penetrating "on your left"/"on your right" would be more useful than just a bell.

[samueljohnson@mstdn.social]

@pete > pedestrians have priority. End of.

Not in the bike lane they don't. Try it in the Netherlands, you'll get it quickly.

The issue isn't simply a matter of entitlement in any case, but of safety. Pedestrians walking in or potentially about to step into a bike lane can and often do endanger others as well as themselves. Sure, some are deaf. Some wear bone conducting headphones so they can hear ambient sounds. Some are absent minded. Others think they can do what they like with impunity.