On 08/08/2014 22:38, Mike Barnes wrote:

I disagree. A bell communicates its message immediately, but someone
hearing a voice has no idea what it's about or whether it's coming from
a cyclist or a pedestrian.

And if you use your voice in good time (as you should) you'll need to
shout, and generally speaking people don't like being shouted at.

You don't need to shout, you just need to make yourself heard. I believe
it's called projecting.

Works when running too - you still get the same "ooh, what's that?
Somebody is approaching on this narrow path. Mmm, why are they calling?
Ah, maybe they want to get past. You go to the left, I'll go to the
right. No, I'll go to the left, you go to the right. No, that's still
not working, let's both go to the left." at which point you pass. Which
is why you need to call in plenty of time.

When going fast on a bike, having a squeaky brake works well - the back
one on the tandem can be heard quite a long way off if I do it right.
Going fast is likely to be downhill, hands are already on the brakes, so
it's way faster than a bell would be.

The tandem also has the advantage that it's a fairly uncommon sight, so
people like to see them, and it's obviously big, so people know they are
going to have to get out of the way. If I'm squealing the brake there's
the message that I'm not going to be able to stop either, though
actually the brakes are really rather good.

For those people who like to infer the wrong thing, I should add the
above two paragraphs generally apply to riding on roads rather than
shared-use paths, and the people I'm warning are those 5 abreast across
the road.