Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seen cyclists with overear anc headphones cycling on the road in london. Absolutely mad.
Do you also think drivers with windows blocking sounds and their stereo blasting are mad?
ofc they are
Škoda DuoBell: A bicycle bell that penetrates noise-cancelling headphones
221–230 of 618 posts
Re: Škoda DuoBell: A bicycle bell that penetrates noise-cancelling headphones
#222Do horns and bells really prevent accidents? In order for e.g. a horn to work you need enough time that the driver processes the situation and decides the horn will communicate something AND enough time for the pedestrian or whatever to process that and react to it. Generally it's a lot easier just to press the brake, and more importantly be travelling at a speed and in a manner where the brake is sufficient. Structu…
There are a lot of runners on mixed use paths wearing headphones these days. They are an absolute danger to overtaking bikes. A bell they would hear would be useful.
Re: Škoda DuoBell: A bicycle bell that penetrates noise-cancelling headphones
#223Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why can't the cyclists slow down when they see that there's a human obstacle in front of them?
There are often a LOT of human obstacles, and we have places to be! I slow down a bit but I don’t have a lot of patience for total unawareness. I don’t find this to be an issue with riding in the city because I ride on the road or in bike lanes. But when I go trail riding, it’s very annoying when people take up the trail and do not hear or react to my bell. Sometimes the situation is such that it is difficult to stop…
There is easy excuse, people expect other people to be rational, and to slow down a bit. Not to ride downhill at full speed.
I heard "human obstacle" last time in carmagedon!
Re: Škoda DuoBell: A bicycle bell that penetrates noise-cancelling headphones
#224Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seen cyclists with overear anc headphones cycling on the road in london. Absolutely mad.
I do that. This was never a problem, as the ANC ones I used don't cancel every sound the same way. For example, I can go into datacenter and it will cancel all the datacenter noise(aside for when air blows directly into mic, it overdrives it) but I can still hear what other person is saying. Also I used them to generally listen to podcast so there was no wall of music to go thru, so sirens and such were easily discer…
>I do that. This was never a problem
The most problematic people in traffic are never aware that they are the problem.
Re: Škoda DuoBell: A bicycle bell that penetrates noise-cancelling headphones
#225I genuinely had a similar thought a few days ago while riding my motorbike; I had my AirPods on with noise cancelling, and I was like: I wish there was something that would alert me to horns/bells ... not that AirPods are super efficient at cancelling background noise but still!
Noise cancelling headphones while riding a motorbike is… a choice. Do you also wear a blindfold?
Re: Škoda DuoBell: A bicycle bell that penetrates noise-cancelling headphones
#226Earlier quoted context omitted.
Bicycle bells are mostly for warning pedestrians when approaching from behind and passing on shared-use trails. I ride on shared infrastructure and cannot afford to build new infrastructure when my town will not. Not warning a pedestrian when approaching from behind introduces the possibility of collision if the pedestrian makes a sudden change in his walking course. I typically use this etiquette: Passing a single p…
I wonder if you are German? Spending some time in Germany from Holland I notice there is a significant difference in cycling etiquette :) Especially regarding “passing a cyclist” which also touches on the essential difficulty with having only one “ring” sound. Always when Germans pass me on the bike and they ring I get slightly annoyed because I interpret it as a “get out of the way” ring, and I feel like there is en…
As a Dutch person, I experience exactly this dilemma: ringing the bell feels like telling people to get out of the way, when often there is plenty of space for me to pass through, but I know that there's a significant chance that they're going to veer into my way if they don't know I'm coming.
Of course, ringing my bell will often cause people to veer into the way, too. But then if you ring at a sufficient distance, you risk them not hearing it. Except there's no way to tell if they're not hearing it, or just consciously not veering into the way, and in the latter case, you don't want to ring again, because that will sound even more impatient.
Etiquette is hard.
(And yes, I want cars to have a bicycle bell too, so they can greet people without jump-scaring me.)
Re: Škoda DuoBell: A bicycle bell that penetrates noise-cancelling headphones
#227Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm completely in favor of building dedicated infrastructure, but I can't do that by myself. (Also, how do you prevent pedestrians from crossing said dedicated infrastructure without looking? Should it be fenced off? But I agree that there are better and worse implementations of dedicated bike lanes.) What would you suggest cyclists do until that happens? Never go faster than walking speed? Then I can leave my bike a…
> What would you suggest cyclists do until that happens? Never go faster than walking speed? Then I can leave my bike at home. Cycle on the road, where cars can hit me, instead of the dedicated bike lane, use of which is often mandatory? I don't know where you live but it's quite unusual here to be cycling through areas that have a lot of pedestrians. If the bike lane is a dedicated one, pedestrians are very rarely i…
Our bike lanes are just a line on the sidewalk and pedestrians routinely walk on them, cross the sidewalk in them without looking, let their toddlers/pets run into them, etc. Also, nobody realizes that a bicycle bell means "someone is coming", so they just ignore it as background noise.
I had to mount an airhorn onto my bike. At least people listen to that, though it's so loud I only use it in emergencies.
Re: Škoda DuoBell: A bicycle bell that penetrates noise-cancelling headphones
#228For anyone that wants to actually hear the bell before reading all the marketing material:
Bell sound starts at 2:09 in the video.
Re: Škoda DuoBell: A bicycle bell that penetrates noise-cancelling headphones
#229Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Do horns and bells really prevent accidents? They absolutely do, for indirect reasons: > Generally it's a lot easier just to press the brake Maybe easier, but it hardly seems fair, nor realistic. With a bit of experience, you can tell when pedestrians are likely to stumble onto the bike lane without looking. Then you have two choices: Significantly reduce your speed, or ring your bell first and only reduce speed if…
I get your point about not wanting to reduce speed, but it's worth considering how the law might react in a worse-case scenario. Here in the UK, there was an infamous case of Charlie Alliston who ended up getting a ridiculous 18 months prison sentence after colliding with a pedestrian who hit her head and subsequently died. He was riding a "fixie" without a front brake and was cycling at around 18mph through some gre…
I don't know, the sentence doesn't sound ridiculous if you're cycliing at 18mph towards someone, without a front brake, and your precaution is "it's OK, I can guess which way they're going to go".
Re: Škoda DuoBell: A bicycle bell that penetrates noise-cancelling headphones
#230This bell would be illegal in Denmark, where our laws clearly state that you are only allowed one signal giving device and that any signal giving devices attached to vehicles (including bikes) can only produce one constant sound. How this would be enforced is a different topic.
Non of those laws are enforced, ever. Even if you get stopped by police. When have you last seen a bike with all the mandetory reflectors?