I have hearing loss!

It's a really difficult one. I think that the majority of folk here are pretty responsible when it comes to shared paths. I personally favour a bell falling back on a friendly call while dropping my speed and moving right across if need be. It's up to the cyclist to look out for those walking. On the other hand the pedestrian needs to be aware of other users around and if that means the occasional glance behind then so be it. 

Hello John, if I might make a suggestion, on shared use paths, try and stick on one side, left or right, doesn't matter, it will give any approaching cyclist more room to pass. Try not to be in the middle. If you do need to move from your chosen side, to avoid a puddle or some dog poo, a quick glance behind is never a bad idea, just in case something is approaching from your rear, could be a runner. And in fact a quick glance rearwards is never a bad idea anyway.  I do the glance when I'm riding on towpaths, bridleways or cycle routes, there are faster riders out there than me. It's all part of being in the environment.

I would have thought that saying which side they are on would be helpful if you can't locate a sound source?  More seriously, though, what you say is what I do, except for possibly using a louder than normal voice - it's the only way to get someone with ear pods in to hear you.  (I also probably take a slightly different attitude to a shared path as to when a pedestrian is walking on a clearly marked cycle path.)

This is unfortunatley one of those things where we, as cyclists, just can't win. Peds all react differently, and it doesn't matter if ring my bell, call out, or just glide past silently, it seems like there's a 50% chance I get a negative reaction from the ped.

Some peds find the bell aggresive, some find calling out obnoxious, and some jump out of their skin to see you pass 3-4 meters away and shout at you to use your bell.

My preferred method is to wait for a gap and silently pass wide and slow. If I'm going to lose no matter what I do, I might as well go with the least effort...

Unfortunately, for every person who comes on here saying "don't bellow 'CYCLIST PASSING ON THE LEFT/RIGHT' ", there's another who will come on asking us to please yell "ON YOUR LEFT/RIGHT" louder as they have trouble hearing us. And for some reason pedestrians don't wear tabards with written instructions to cyclists on the back so we know who wants what treatment.

On a cycling Facebook page I'm on we had, within a week, two non-cyclists join just to post long rants that I can summarize as:

• You cyclists need to announce yourselves, you startle me when you ride past even if you give me a lot of space.
• Why do cyclists always announce themselves? It's obnoxious and it startles me. Just ride past.

Another option you might consider, if this is a particular problem when out walking, is the Garmin Varia radar.

There's a smaller unit which doesn't have a light (RVR315), which could be mounted on a belt/armband. You can pair most hearing aids to your phone via bluetooth and the radar also pairs to the phone, so you could get audible alerts of joggers/cyclists/motorvehicles approaching from behind.

I find it very useful out on the bike. I've not been surprised by an overtake since using it.

If you also cycle, I'd get the version with the light (RTL515), as that can be turned on/off as required and is not much bigger.