"to your left" enough audible signal when passing?

[wolfish]

Just started riding again, after moving from California last summer. I’ve been riding the Mt Vernon Trail from DC, sometimes just to Old Town sometimes all the way to Mt Vernon and back to DC. When passing I make sure to announce in loud voice rather than with a bell, and with enough time to avoid last minute reactions from pedestrians, runners or other cyclists. There are times where other cyclists will react quite “bipolar-lunatic” just because I’m not using a bell but rather, yelling “to your left” or “to your right”. The rules for using the trails dictate to use audible signal but it is not specific about the use of bells (or farts for that matter) so I usually ignore the hate however this morning I had fellow cyclist, acting like a lunatic, chasing me and dangerously tailgating me while yelling and cursing at me, just because I did not use a bell when I passed him and obviously even more fired up because I was ignoring his cyclist rage.

My question is, how is it that something as simple as not using a bell can trigger a dangerous reaction from a fellow cyclist to the point of becoming a risk himself to other cyclist? Is there any history of “cyclist rage” on that trail either in the morning when commuting or at any other time in the day? I’m 45 years old, have been riding since I was a kid, in four different continents, in the west coast for close to ten years, never have seen a fellow cyclist react like this guy did today.

Quick edit: to let everyone that I wasn’t passing anyone on the right, I announced I was going to pass on the left, with enough clearance and no one coming either way so totally safe.

Topic

[Supermau]

@trailrunner 116619 wrote:

…When in doubt, I’d slow down and be careful. I learned early on to back off on the speed because they are multi use trails for everyone, and not my personal training track. Fortunately, I never came across anybody as aggressive as the guy you encountered.

Hear, hear. I ride a lot on off peak hours too and I’ll gas it when I can and if I feel like it but a mans got to know his limitations.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]8692[/ATTACH]

It took a rookie/dangerous pass by ME in the beginning to learn that. No harm in slowing down. Sadly, to a lot of folks the MVT is their personal training track.

[wolfish]

no offense to those who are bipolar or have bipolar friends, btw. All in all it seems to me that, there are plenty of entitled people around riding the trails w/o any type of control over their own emotions and definitely with reactions that are simply exaggerated.

[mattotoole]

A bell followed by a calmly-voiced alert is a lot friendlier than just barking at people, which too many cyclists seem to do. We get upset by how motorists treat us, then do the same to people walking on trails!

[rcannon100]

Call your passes early. It works remarkably well and is said to also remove stains from your shirts.

[Author]

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