Vehicles tooting just before passing a cyclist

[Deleted member 26715]

No evidence there of having talked to horse-riders.
But we're back to my earlier post ... I don't want to hear cyclists' thoughts. I want to hear horse-riders' thoughts.

Maybe clarification required then, been around horses/horse riders for 40+ years, including breaking to harness for use on roads, it's a stupid idea, a polite call is far better if anything is required, but a good rider/driver will already know you're approaching.

 

[ianrauk]

Horses tend to like a voice, then they know it's a person. Noises like bells, hooting, engines, clicking cleats, ticky freewheels, could all be a predator creeping up, as far as the horse is concerned.

I did ask a horse rider a few years back what was the best thing a cyclist could do and she said exactly this. A voice over anything else.

 

[byegad]

As a recumbent rider, meeting a dobbin coming towards me, it's a no brainer to stop sit up and speak to the rider. Dobbin and his four legged mates have no idea what a recumbent is and will shy and skitter on siting me on the move.
Catching one is more of a problem, I try a toot of my squeeze bulb horn from very far back, but this is usually not heard, as I get within calling range I call out:- 'Am I OK to come through?' Then the fun starts, some riders will wave me on and I go to the edge of the road while putting on a bit of a spurt. Others will ask me to wait and go into a field, turn off or in one case dismount and hold the horse's head while talking to it.
I keep up a chatter about the weather, the price of fish or anything else so the horse knows I'm human(ish).
The last thing any of us wants is the horse hitting us and the second last thing we want is the rider getting unseated so I'm ultra cautious around them. An equestrian friend once told me the secret about horses, she said:- 'Remember that they are all crackers!' Another rider I spoke to stunned me by telling me that his Hunter, which he often rides on roads, is terrified of concrete!

 

[growingvegetables]

Maybe clarification required then, been around horses/horse riders for 40+ years, including breaking to harness for use on roads, it's a stupid idea, a polite call is far better if anything is required, but a good rider/driver will already know you're approaching.

Ah - thank you . That bit of the jigsaw was missing ... or I'd missed it earlier in the thread.

Fair enough - the woman I met was unusual in having trained her horse to listen for bells. Though it was strange that day, but too late to find out what she meant.

 

[mjr]

One thing I do when approaching pedestrians is pedal backwards for a second, then forward, then back, then fwd. This way the pedestrians can hear me approaching, they can tell it's a bike and they move to one side.

A happy bike is near-silent. You really ought to get that noisy freewheel fixed

Sometimes pedestrians think bells are more of a demand to get out of the way... I think?

A minority do, but it's not the general view. All it means is "I am here" so you don't surprise them. A decade ago, British Waterways had a "two tings" campaign asking cyclists to ring their bells twice when approaching other towpath users, while Sustrans occasionally do things like Ring Your Bell. This is one cycling topic that the Highway Code is correct on: rule 66.

Horses tend to like a voice, then they know it's a person. Noises like bells, hooting, engines, clicking cleats, ticky freewheels, could all be a predator creeping up, as far as the horse is concerned.

Yep. If I ring the bell, it's from very far away to try to catch the ear of the rider. As I get near, I put the bike in a fairly low gear (to avoid hub gear or freewheel pawls ticking), sit up and say hello to the rider as I pass as wide as I can. I really don't want to be anywhere near an animal that size if it panics!

 

[mjr]

How do you manage to catch the ear of the rider without the horse noticing? Have you seen the size of their ears?

The horse usually notices but none yet have reacted to a bell so far away. (Hardly surprising, as they must hear all sorts of noises far off.) I wouldn't dream of ringing it loudly close by.

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

For horse riders I say hello and ask them if it's ok to pass.
I did hear the theory that a cyclist looks like a predator so talking makes you less threatening. I asked a lady on a horse and she said she'd not heard of that but was very happy I'd thought about how to deal with the big critters.
I pass a guy regularly in Wharncliffe woods whose horse does revenge overtakes sortof. Whenever I pass it speeds up. The rider told me the horse was trained to follow a cyclist. They're the friendliest people I come across.

Just using my voice has got me one complaint in the last 17 years.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

A toot usually means please pull in the centre of the road and stop. You dropped something back there and I'd like to hand it over to you. Doesn't it?

 

[mjr]

A toot usually means please pull in the centre of the road and stop. You dropped something back there and I'd like to hand it over to you. Doesn't it?

Maybe you jest, but I've had that happen and then the driver of the Fiesta handed me my gloves back. I was in the habit of taking them out of my pockets and putting them on as I started riding, but that time I'd ridden off with them on top of my pannier and they'd gone flying at a mini-roundabout!

 

[Shut Up Legs]

A toot usually means please pull in the centre of the road and stop. You dropped something back there and I'd like to hand it over to you. Doesn't it?

It sure does!

 

[Bodhbh]

Maybe you jest, but I've had that happen and then the driver of the Fiesta handed me my gloves back. I was in the habit of taking them out of my pockets and putting them on as I started riding, but that time I'd ridden off with them on top of my pannier and they'd gone flying at a mini-roundabout!

It can do and it's happened several times. At least once, like you because I'd left them on top of the bike and rode off. It's why I hold my breath and don't immediately go into battle mode if someone toots me from behind no matter how much it instictively puts my back up.

 

[byegad]

They must hate recumbent bikes.

They usually do!
The theories as to why are many and varied, but I subscribe to two.
1. When horses fight other horses they tend to rear up and wave their front legs at each other attempting to make a hit with their paws/hands/hooves/hoofs whatever. As most, but not all recumbents have the rider's legs whirling about in front of the bike, the theory says they think we are threatening them!
2. Back in the days when things hunted horses, they were invariably to be seen crouching close to the ground an approaching them. Again a lot of recumbents meet this to some extent.

 

[jefmcg]

Back in the days when things hunted horses, they were invariably to be seen crouching close to the ground an approaching them. Again a lot of recumbents meet this to some extent.

Recumbent riders are like panthers?

 

[byegad]

Only to horses, which are one of the silliest animals.

 

[al78]

Another paid-up member of the Stockholm Syndrome Cycling Club?

What are you on about?

You shouldn't sneak up on people so that you're so close that they can hear your cleats click! Next you'll be saying that you just join in their conversation without warning...

I don't "sneak up on people", I just go at their pace ten meters or so behind, and either overtake when there is sufficient room, or get off and walk. My cleats do sometimes click loudly, and on an off-road route there is little ambient noise.

Doesn't it get depressing hating walkers that much?

If you say so. I wouldn't know as I don't hate walkers.