Pedestrian Collision

[w00hoo_kent]

Come on, the one @jonny jeez hit obviously didn't have earphones in and was recognised as likely to step off the kerb a long way out. There's possible and there's near certain... And how does flicking the bell waste seconds? Put the bell so it's accessible!

I'm not a fan of bells, but do shout which seems to help and takes no resources at all. It's very hard to analyse an anecdote and I agree @jonny jeez has painted two pictures already (one where the ped was hopping in and out of the road, one where they weren't). In the former I'd probably have given a short horn beep on a motorbike or changed my path, I'm unclear how he was filtering at this point. It is of course always easier to look back at something, but that's why you'd hope people in general would use previous experiences to make future road use safer.

 

[donnydave]

flicking the bell

 

[mjr]

Shout if you prefer, or fit a horn. Something, anything! Why wouldn't you? It's far ruder to collide!

 

[summerdays]

A bell/horn/shout can not be relied on to prevent a collision. They could be deaf, or deep in conversation and just ignore it assuming it wasn't meant for them. In the same way the drivers in cars look for motor vehicles at junctions, pedestrians probably look for them too. I will always reach for the brakes first to kill as much speed as possible.

Depending on how close it is I might also let out a girly screech!

 

[mjr]

So you ride around honking your horn at people who might be a hazard, I bet you aren't half annoying. I'm surprised you haven't been thumped by someone for it, plenty of people out there who get upset when a horn is aimed in their direction.

Not "might" - just the ones who look like a very good chance of doing something silly. There's a lot of them around much of central London, although I've also ridden past the Abbeywood site on the edge of Bristol that @summerdays mentioned a few times, heading to/from events at UWE - that's much worse for wanderers than you'd expect from looking on map.

As for being thumped... very few people get upset with a short friendly bip. It's like the difference between a ding-dong bell and a full blast on an airzound - one is a little hello, the other is a scream... make friends with your motor vehicle horn as well as your bike bell ;-)

 

[jonny jeez]

Guys...for clarity...i was on my motorbike, not the pushbike. Never cone close to this when on the road bike oddly.

The guy was sitting, then standing, then sitting then standing and waving his arms about and laughing . I clocked his "animated" demeanour a while back and slowed, he was not stepping in and out of the road. Just behaving odd at the bus stop next to it.

My point in this post was to support @Tynan In Saying that you cant mitigate for the complete lack of awareness of some but this should not stop us suggesting caution to new riders.

Carry on.

 

[summerdays]

But on the whole the ones at the MOD are predictable, and most do look first and wait. The only place I know where pedestrians stay on their side and bikes on the other generally, though the students aren't as predictable as the MOD staff.