"You're welcome" when you're not, on a canal towpath

Bmblbzzz
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Re: "You're welcome" when you're not, on a canal towpath

Post by Bmblbzzz »

Note that wearing headphones, especially large ones, does not necessarily equate to listening to music (or anything else); some people wear them routinely as a means of fending off unwanted words (verbal harassment of various types) or ambient noise, or to deal to with tinnitus. And strictly in terms of hearing, headphones and music are about equal in terms of external audible input with music from car stereo with windows closed.
Jdsk
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Re: "You're welcome" when you're not, on a canal towpath

Post by Jdsk »

Tiberius wrote: 29 Jul 2021, 7:52am
Tiggertoo wrote: 28 Jul 2021, 4:46pm On a similar note, I often ride on a local hike/bike trail and just about every walker/runner has ear buds and or have eyes glued to their phones, so calling out or ringing a bell has no effect, they just can't hear what's coming up behind them.
Not just pedestrians

Just the other day I saw a bloke riding a bike with a full sized set of headphones on his bonce. This wasn't on a tow path, it was in the middle of town which is currently mad and thick with summer traffic.

It's just how 'people' are now, it's what we've become.
I'm missing something... what have "we" become, please?

Thanks

Jonathan
Phil Fouracre
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Re: "You're welcome" when you're not, on a canal towpath

Post by Phil Fouracre »

Ah! The mysterious ‘we’ - when you get your answer, pleas let me know:-)
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity
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Cowsham
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Re: "You're welcome" when you're not, on a canal towpath

Post by Cowsham »

Darkman wrote: 28 Jul 2021, 11:59am Didn't happen on a towpath, but I was coming up behind two people walking along a narrow road with a dog (off-lead) a few months back. I pinged the bell to make them aware. Bloke starts rifling through his pockets as I draw close, seemingly paying not a jot of attention to me. :(

I pass him, slowly, and he leaps about three foot in the air, completely unaware that I was even there.

Turns out, he thought the "ping" was his phone, hence his frenzied pocket search. :roll:

Not sure if society is doomed by social media, or I need a new bell.
:lol:
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Cowsham
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Re: "You're welcome" when you're not, on a canal towpath

Post by Cowsham »

Tiggertoo wrote: 28 Jul 2021, 4:46pm
Not sure if society is doomed by social media,
Yup!
On a similar note, I often ride on a local hike/bike trail and just about every walker/runner has ear buds and or have eyes glued to their phones, so calling out or ringing a bell has no effect, they just can't hear what's coming up behind them.
When I see and hear someone talking to no one with their ear buds in it brings me back almost 50 years to that nutter at school who talked into the rubber on the end of his pencil.
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Cowsham
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Re: "You're welcome" when you're not, on a canal towpath

Post by Cowsham »

One of the amusing things I saw ( heard them first ) was two hooligans ripping along the towpath of the LL on two stroke powered mountain bikes! You'd not need a bell on those things.
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Tiberius
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Re: "You're welcome" when you're not, on a canal towpath

Post by Tiberius »

Jdsk wrote: 29 Jul 2021, 9:02am

I'm missing something... what have "we" become, please?

Thanks

Jonathan
'We' have become stupid - (I'm hearing 'speak for yourself')

I neither desire, nor need, to elaborate.

Observe.
Jdsk
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Re: "You're welcome" when you're not, on a canal towpath

Post by Jdsk »

I don't think that there's any evidence of a general trend towards stupidity.

What I do see is far too much Golden Agery, often triggered by individual events.

Jonathan
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RickH
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Re: "You're welcome" when you're not, on a canal towpath

Post by RickH »

Darkman wrote: 28 Jul 2021, 11:59am Didn't happen on a towpath, but I was coming up behind two people walking along a narrow road with a dog (off-lead) a few months back. I pinged the bell to make them aware. Bloke starts rifling through his pockets as I draw close, seemingly paying not a jot of attention to me. :(

I pass him, slowly, and he leaps about three foot in the air, completely unaware that I was even there.

Turns out, he thought the "ping" was his phone, hence his frenzied pocket search. :roll:

Not sure if society is doomed by social media, or I need a new bell.
The single note of a "ping" type bell is a lot like the default sound for the Facebook Messenger app.

After a long time without a bell I stumped up for a Lion Bellworks one which seems to work better at getting attention than previous ones I've had. (Although not as effective as the discs on the tandem that have a "sweet" spot, just beyond feathering the brakes but well before hard braking, where they do a passable imitation of a truck doing an emergency stop! :twisted:). The squeeze bulb hooter on my friend's tandem seems to work well too & it is difficult to make it sound aggressive. :lol:
Former member of the Cult of the Polystyrene Head Carbuncle.
Tiggertoo
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Re: "You're welcome" when you're not, on a canal towpath

Post by Tiggertoo »

I don't think that there's any evidence of a general trend towards stupidity.

What I do see is far too much Golden Agery, often triggered by individual events.

Jonathan
Absolutely, let's all blame the old people.
Pete Owens
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Re: "You're welcome" when you're not, on a canal towpath

Post by Pete Owens »

atoz wrote: 25 Jul 2021, 11:28pm As far as being too close, if you were further out, you would end up having a swim.
Which of course is exactly the same excuse bad drivers give for close passing cyclists in places where the road is not wide enough to overtake safely.
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