Friday, 2 April 2010

Room Enough For All


I'm getting into the groove of being a cyclist now with a regular couple of times a week on the road. It has heightened my awareness of the relationship between cyclists and motorists. There are the hardliners out there who think that either all cyclists are arrogant or all motorists are such. The truth is however that there are good and bad motorists and good and bad cyclists when it comes to sharing the road. What I hadn't bargained for however, is the relationship between cyclists and pedestrians. For some reason, a lot of pedestrians think they don't have to take cyclists into account on the road. When J-walking, most pedestrians will take into account cars that might be coming past them, but I'm amazed by the number of pedestrians who, when crossing the road at a place or time when they shouldn't be, think that cyclists should look out for them rather than the other way around. Having seen a collision between a pedestrian and a cyclist, the pedestrian is not going to come out of it well.
Surely we can all share.

2 comments:

Victor said...

I cyclist fell off his bike as he passed by me in a park. I wasn't sure which side of me he wished to pass and so stopped still and this seemed to spook him.

He gave me a dirty look as though I had intentionally baulked him but I really was trying to be co-operative.

Campbell said...

Cyclist do need to be clear about their intentions Victor. In a park 'road' rules are less defined than on the road.