Quote Originally Posted by chicagogal View Post
I don't have a bell, but shout "on your left" or "CYCLIST! On your left!" when passing pedestrians and cyclists (note that many pedestrians ignore this warning, or respond to it by moving left).
That's one of the reasons why I gave up saying "on your left" and replaced it with "I am passing on your left." Meh...maybe it works, maybe it doesn't, but (fingers crossed, knocking furiously on wood) so far, I get a brief wave of acknowledgement (from those walkers NOT wearing ear buds), and no problems.


Quote Originally Posted by chicagogal View Post
But having witnessed my friend's accident, I realize that no amount of being "prepared" could have prevented it - it was so fast, and so unpredictable.
That's exactly it. It was an accident - b/c I highly doubt the jogger turned to be malicious. If you could prepare for every accident, well then, accidents wouldn't happen, right?

The best you can do is ride defensively. Ride like the others are unpredictable, because they are. My sister used to have a bumper sticker when we were kids. It said "Be alert. The world needs more lerts!" I guess you just need to add another lert to the world. But please don't let an accident freak you out and off the bike.