Street manners

[Maciamo]

Maciamo,
Have you seen anybody on a bike ringing a little bell to warn pedestrians?

You should get one of those bells and try to get your way, I know how those slow-walking-Japanese people can be very annoying, although you might get a dirty look from them.

Bikes usually have bells, but many people don't hear it, especially if it's a busy street, they are talking or drunk (or both), or old people too. Bells tend not to work in the rain (or right after when still wet). I also don't find it very polite to be ringing one's bell all the time. Now I just ride on the road with the cars. Anyway, the law in Japan says that bicycles should ride on the road rather than the pavement, but 99% of the people either don't know or don't care.

[MeAndroo]

Bikes usually have bells, but many people don't hear it, especially if it's a busy street, they are talking or drunk (or both), or old people too. I also don't find it very polite to be ringing one's bell all the time.

I found bicycle bells to work surprisingly well, even with people on cell phones, at least where people COULD move. There are always instances in the heart of a city where you simply cannot move to one side or another as you walk. But there were cases where my friends and I would be walking and a crowd would be blocking the entire sidewalk. Our only course of action was to ring the bell of a parked bike, and it worked to perfection. I kept saying I was going to buy a bell just for the sake of moving people when I walk.