I ride a shared path on the way to/home from work every day. After years of warning peds, I have given up. I used to use a bell and have peds walk out in front of me and stand in the middle of the path, making it difficult to ride around. Each time I noted they were wearing a music player. I have also ridden close enough for peds to hear my bell, rung and have them leap in front of me from shock. Now as I approach peds, I assess and then make a decision to:
a) ride on past if they are walking to the left and holding a consistent line
b) slow and pass with caution if they appear erratic
c) basically stop if I am unsure of what they are going to do
d) ride off the path and avoid completely - I am running 32s so can ride grass no issues
If necessary, I use a verbal warning of "bike!". When I resort to a verbal warning, it is not a feeble whimper that gets lost in the background noise of the surrounds. It means that I have judged wrong and sounds like either my life of their life is on the line. It is far louder than any bell I have heard. If you are crossing a shared path without looking (who does that BTW?) and hear me yell "Bike! Bike! Bike!" you WILL know about it!
