Walking across Holborn Viaduct today, I watched as a man crossed the road and was almost run over by a cyclist. Nothing new there, happens all the time, I hear you say. Well, yes it does and this is central London after all. However, what really struck me was not the fact that the dude on Shanksy's Pony was completely oblivious to this near miss, but, that in order to warn ol' Roy Rogers that he was imminent danger, the cyclist rang his bell. I'm not sure who was most at fault really; pedestrian Roy for not even looking as he crossed the road or the cyclist for actually believing that anyone apart from Steve Austin would be able to hear his Fisher Price super-duper ding dong device above the ceaseless throng of taxi's and bendy buses.
The humble cycle bell is from an age gone by, a time where car horns went parp or poop. I can't think of anything more pointless to have affixed to your handlebars whilst traversing the mean streets of Holborn, except, perhaps, an ashtray. The highway code states the following "Be considerate of other road users, particularly blind and partially sighted pedestrians. Let them know you are there when necessary, for example by ringing your bell." So, there you have it loyal reader, unless you want to start carving notches on your handlebars any time soon, you'd better make sure that your bell is Big-F***ing-Ben....
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