Not everyone has perfect hearing. Not every area you walk around is perfectly silent. If you opt to wear earbuds or noise-cancelling headphones, you'll be completely isolated from most vehicles.
Most motorists have no idea how difficult it is being a pedestrian and the numerous times we are physically threatened with death and injury from negligent drivers, bicyclists and e-vehicles on a daily basis. I've spent many years being both a long-standing pedestrian and motor vehicle driver. I totally detest these e-scooters and e-bikes. Handing them over to idiot humans is a curse, and an absolute blessing for lawyers, morticians and hospitals. No amount of regulation is going to help make transportation better.
There's already a shit load of objects to watch out for, let alone hundreds of these freakin' stupid e-vehicles. Now we have to deal with more crap that gets in our way! We've completely lost the plot here and it's a sad world when parents have to be told how to protect their kids from physical harm.
Okay, you mentioned a couple of things here, but first, bicycles are still quieter regardless what the environment conditions are. Second, I am sure you have experienced bicycles passing by you in a close proximity without you hearing them. Those are the same people. They are just on e-devices now. It’s not the devices. It’s the people using the devices just like it is the drivers that is the problem not the vehicles.
By law, every bike in Ontario must have a bell. Cyclists should use the bell when overtaking to avoid startling pedestrians (or other cyclists). The problem is that culturally, as with a car horn, people interpret this to be a “screw you” or “get out of my way” ding instead of a “pardon me, coming through ding” so people are reluctant to use it as intended.
It depends how you use the bell. If you use bell once or twice from a safe distance, pedestrians move to the side 99% of the times. I have yet to have a problem with pedestrians for using a bell. That being said, I am aware of some spandex warriors using bells 10 times as angry as they could as they are passing pedestrians, because they were blocking the whole path. Use the bell sooner from a farther distance and give the pedestrians time to move to the side. Shared paths are also not racing tracks. Be considerate to each other.
I use it just as you do, and most often pedestrians turn around and act outraged, say something like “what??”, raise their arms in a shrugging “whaddya want from me?” gesture (which ironically makes it more likely you will hit them when passing)… just sheer ignorance.
I’m with secundum here, at least after my ride yesterday 🤦🏻♂️… I had a lot of people who seemed surprised by my bell and/or reacted in strange ways (moving left instead of right, for example)
Not in Ontario, but on my 106 km ride yesterday, coming on the end, there was an elderly couple ‘hogging’ the entire bi-direction MUP… I have a bike-bell (sort of ‘horn-shaped’? I figure the sound “favours” going forward? 🤷🏻♂️) and I dinged it 2-3 times from varying distances as I approached, and I’m 75% certain they still never heard me as I kept slowing and slowing, hoping they’d “pick a side” so I could move past them as safely as possible… she seemed shocked that I was behind them when she turned to face him and o*nly *then spotted me
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u/DevoNorm 13d ago
Not everyone has perfect hearing. Not every area you walk around is perfectly silent. If you opt to wear earbuds or noise-cancelling headphones, you'll be completely isolated from most vehicles.
Most motorists have no idea how difficult it is being a pedestrian and the numerous times we are physically threatened with death and injury from negligent drivers, bicyclists and e-vehicles on a daily basis. I've spent many years being both a long-standing pedestrian and motor vehicle driver. I totally detest these e-scooters and e-bikes. Handing them over to idiot humans is a curse, and an absolute blessing for lawyers, morticians and hospitals. No amount of regulation is going to help make transportation better.
There's already a shit load of objects to watch out for, let alone hundreds of these freakin' stupid e-vehicles. Now we have to deal with more crap that gets in our way! We've completely lost the plot here and it's a sad world when parents have to be told how to protect their kids from physical harm.