I find that a minority, when hearing that, instinctively take a step left before realizing that they need to move to the right.
I find that a minority, when hearing that, instinctively take a step left before realizing that they need to move to the right.
They hear something, and turn in the direction of the noise to see what it was, in this case to their left.
As someone who walks the trails a lot, having someone say “on your left” every two minutes is annoying. Just don’t hit me and let me enjoy the trail in silence. The people who are walking need to treat it like the sidewalk that it is and not suddenly jump out where people are biking and running. With half of the people wearing earbuds, they can’t hear you anyway.
I’ll only ever say “on your <side>” if I’m moving significantly faster than a person (e.g. I’m biking or running), there’s little space, and I have some reason to think they may not be aware that I’m coming up behind them and could move unexpectedly to the side.