What’s your SHOUT?

[StopMeansStop]

What do you yell to get the attention of that driver, pedestrian, etc that isn’t paying attention and threatens your well being?

Ive got a nice HEADS UP that bellows from my chest. I like to practice it to see how far away it works. I can usually make everyone in a half block radius with their windows up snap their heads.

[SilverSpring]

If I’m relatively calm, I give a nice loud “Oi!,” like Ron Weasley in the movies. If I’m scared, I try to give a throaty cry of alarm which (sadly) comes out sounding like I’m my daughter (age 9) finding a spider in her bed.

[Mikey]

“fore”

[DaveK]

Unprintable in a family-friendly forum. I’ve not reached my Zen quite yet.

[JimF22003]

Usually it’s “careful”. Rarely works though.

[Terpfan]

Sometimes I say ‘heads up’ loudly. It doesn’t work too well down by the mall because the soft ball players inevitably think they’ve missed something.

[Mikey]

Once when pulling 2 kids in our Chariot trailer, I shouted, “Passing; wide-load!”

You should have seen the look on the rather large woman pedestrian that we passed. I quickly said, “oh, sorry I meant me, not you.” That didn’t really help. Now I just use my bell.

[off2ride]

I do the “Water boarding” scream. Of course I pick my victims. It’s rated R. Not for the whole family.

[baiskeli]

essigmw;18359 wrote:

once when pulling 2 kids in our chariot trailer, i shouted, “passing; wide-load!”

you should have seen the look on the rather large woman pedestrian that we passed. I quickly said, “oh, sorry i meant me, not you.” that didn’t really help. Now i just use my bell.

lolz

[mstone]

Usually if it’s that far gone I just say something like “AAAAHHHH”.

[consularrider]

Depends on where I am and I tend to mix things up. It could be OYE or OJO, heads up, bike coming, careful, or something along those lines. I won’t repeat what I used with the BMW that just had to go around me on the right and make a left turn in front of me as I was making my left turn from Lee Highway onto Ft Myer Dr only to stop immediately at the next light twenty yards up. It started with an “I.” But I did get the opportunity to tell him he made an illegal pass as I went by him (legally) and stayed in front of him (luckily there was another car between us ) until he turned right at Key Blvd.

[DSalovesh]

It’s usually a variation on “yo!”, everything from a polite little eyo to a bloodcurdling YYYYOOOOOOWWWW!!!

I’ll throw in a “passingggg!” if that’s what I’m doing and the target seems to be conscious, but mostly I assume they aren’t, don’t care, or I don’t have room to accommodate if they move INTO my path instead of out of it.

[PotomacCyclist]

If someone is acting irresponsibly, I shout out “Heads up”, loudly but without anger. Or “Coming through!” if people are blocking the trail in both directions and going the wrong way.

For the aggressive jerks (whether it’s a driver, another cyclist or even some pedestrians, who jaywalk by leaping into the road directly in front of or behind a car or me on the bike), I might let loose a spontaneous WTH. I don’t plan to say that. It’s a natural response when someone endangers me and I don’t have much of a chance to avoid them.

If I’m passing someone in a normal situation (everyone in the appropriate lane and travelling in the right direction), then I just say “Passing on your left.” Or “passing on your right” when the pedestrians have completely blocked off the left lane and are wandering around too much for me to pass on the left. I always slow down in such cases, so even if the pedestrians get confused and veer off suddenly to either side, I’ll have plenty of time to stop safely and avoid a collision.

Note: Regarding the aggressive jaywalkers, some people try to cross in the middle of a block and time their run to avoid oncoming car traffic. This means that they will consider an oncoming cyclist as an inconvenience. I almost got knocked off of my bike once because of this tactic. I made eye contact with the two people about 30 feet away. I was on the mtn bike and not riding too fast, maybe 12 mph in the bike lane. The couple were clearly trying to time their run across the road to beat the car traffic. As soon as I passed by them, they rushed into the road, barely missing my rear tire. If they had kicked my tire, I would have gotten knocked over. While it might not have been a serious accident, it’s still no fun to get tipped over onto asphalt while riding at 12 mph. I turned around and spontaneously shouted WTH!

[MCL1981]

For those that ride Penn, what is your opinion of the SEGWAY TOUR GROUPS monopolizing the bike lanes

[justasaintz]

I just yell “watch out”…the tone increases as the severity of the situation increases.

When I have no time to react, its definitely a “Yo!”

[Author]

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