Bells and hooters are no good. When pedestrians hear them, (that's all those that aren't texting on their phones or listening to headphones, which doesn't leave many). it seems to cause them to veer directly into your path instead of getting out the way - best not to bother.
But what I don't understand is how, when you're going quietly down a cycle path aproaching a pedestrian from behind, whos oblivious to your approach because he/she is listening to their music or whatever. How come, when they're walking in a straight line, do they know exactly the moment to start walking at 45 degrees to their previous path, or turn and walk at right angles, just as you get to that point of no return?
Here in Telford we've got many cyclepaths, where the very wide bit next to the road is split into a marked cycle path on one side and a pedestrian way next to it, split by a slightly raised white line. Nine times out of ten, the pedestrians will be walking on the cycle path. Sometimes I point to the signs as I glide past, but most times I can hear abuse being shouted as I disappear in the distance. One time there was a rather heavily pregnant teenager with her bare-topped tattooed teenage boyfriend walking next to her along a bit of sometimes busy cycle path, so as I had just reached the parking racks, I asked her if she realised that it was a cycle path and that she might be safer walking on the footpath - nothing for about ten seconds, and then it was like the blue touch paper had been lit. She gave out an absolute tirade of abuse that included the claim that, as she was pregnant, she could walk where she liked!