I find the worst (most dangerous) riding comes from a group of people who are relatively unremarkable in terms of speed, but have very poor anticipation or empathy for anyone else.
Couldn't have said this better - seen this type of person on canal often enough, they might be doing a 'safe' 10mph or so, but they've absolutely no sense of consideration or awareness and keep that speed up while weaving within inches of kids/dogs/other bikes. Never ring a bell (if even fitted) at bridges, never yield when hearing a bell, and are inevitably truly clueless as to the havoc they can or are wreaking.
Contrast that to someone taking it up to 15mph+ on the clear sections but slowing right down for bridges/passing people etc, and who is aware of everything going on.
Of course, I've seen the odd person gunning it at 20mph+ constantly along there, and they give the impression of firstly knowing what they're doing in as far as they usually have a fancy bike, and appear to be handling it well, and secondly of being total twats, as they tend to whizz by you with almost no space given (if you swerved you'd both be in trouble) and then disappear at the same speed round the next blind bend. I'd be lying if I said I haven't enjoyed the odd blast into the tailwind driven 20mph+ region, though I certainly know when it's not appropriate.
I reckon you could probably write a book or at least a decent research paper on bell use and reactions at the bridges. For me I've thought it comes down to peds being in theory more agile, so if they're going under the bridge and hear a bell they can retreat or lean back against a wall, whereas a bike is pretty much fully committed when they go under and can't take much in the way of evasive action that won't result in an unexpected swim. But now I've thought about the times I've been running along the canal and can pass under the bridges quickly enough that I'd be in trouble if an unexpected bike came through at the same time.
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