“I like to walk regularly in the 

               neighbourhood,…but I find now I feel safer

               in the car than on the pavement due to

               unruly cyclists trying to take over our 

               walkways. You cannot hear them coming

               up behind you and I have never heard a

               bicycle bell yet. Since the municipality has

               improved the pavement and made

               wheelchair ramps, these cyclists love them

               and go whizzing across intersections up 

               and down…the ramps at high speed. I use a cane…and am somewhat off

               balance. I am really scared I will be knocked over one day by a bike and what

               recourse is there. You can take a car’s number but a bike is off like a shot and you

               don’t know the rider. I have complained to the police about this but they don’t

               seem to (mention it) when they have given us ‘safety’ talks.”

 

This reader expresses a concern which may be shared by many people. No matter how careful cyclists may be, “whizzing past” pedestrians requires a quick guess at whether the pedestrian will keep out of the way of the bicycle, and this is extremely risky. For people walking a dog, being “whizzed–past,” by a bicycle is particularly threatening. The likelihood of a dog staying its course is very low. A dog on a leash is often pulling in several directions at once, with regard to the needs of others using the sidewalk.

 

Whenever there is a social problem these days, there will be a call for more regulations to control the issue. Some people suggest that bicycle licensing may be a solution, at least for the problem of identifying the cyclist. An English internet discussion forum, discussing “whizzing–past” behaviour, and the “tendency” of cyclists to run red lights, notes that the City of London police force launched a “ten-month crackdown, handing out 1,294 penalty notices to errant cyclists, giving them the choice of a (substantial) fine or a road-safety course. Most chose the course.”

 

The existing law can also be a deterrent, especially when cyclists understand that they may have to pay for problems they cause. For example, in April 2005, a 36-year-old pedestrian received a large monetary award from the court for her injuries from being hit by a cyclist in a pedestrian crosswalk in Victoria. She was knocked unconscious, and suffered a broken collarbone and a dislocated shoulder. The court ruled that the cyclist was “clearly at fault. …[having] disregarded the signal and passed the stopped traffic on the right in an unsafe manner.”

 

Cyclists are bound by the rules of the road and should stay on the roadway in areas where they are required to do so. But where cycling and pedestrian pathways are intersect or overlap, whizzing past pedestrians without warning — ringing a bicycle bell, or calling out “passing on your left (or right)”— and without slowing down for an indication that the warning is heeded, may be unsafe and impolite.