As a 79 year old cyclist/hillwalker who uses the network of paths in the Cairngorm area, rather than for me, dangerous roads to get about for leisure and to connect with my local villages to purchase food etc. I appear to fall into the category noisy and 'pushy' users of said paths.
Yes I do use my cycle bell to let folks on a path know that I am nearby. In situations on the busy sections of a path where I see a group of folks spread over the trail with their backs to me, as they have a right to do, engaged in talk with each other or whatever I am slowing down usually to walking pace when tiny bell ping announces my presence.
Most times we exchange a few words and I don't find any annoyance to my bell use. All quite civilised really and if a dog is also in the group I am awarded with an extra pleasant meeting.
In recent times a great deal of money has been spent in my area upgrading former footpaths into cycling, walking tracks and on many to make them suitable for child pushchairs....or whatever the modern versions of these are called?
I guess that now when a major road is upgraded as recently happened on my doorstep a parallel section of Walker/Cyclist path is part of the deal in the dualling of a section of the A9. Complete with a surface that the thin tyred cyclists would be happy to use.
However, at the moment, this is a seven kilometre stretch that leads one from the Wildlife Park entrance to fizzle out with a wooden barrier and a deflection under the A9 and through a farm track to come out onto the B9152 where I can engage with the Speyside Way at the Dalraddy holiday park.
At the moment when using this new trail I feel that several millions of taxpayers money has been spent to provide me with a way of cycling seven kilometres with just the noise of the vehicles fighting with each other for overtaking space on the A road. Several months of last year's summer was bliss.