Pedestrian runs into cyclist

All hell seems to have broken loose over at Prick with a Thing - a right punch up has been going on in the comments since last night.

And the topic? Some wowser with a blog trying to make it unlawful for anyone to walk anywhere after they've had a few beers. That's right - walk.

Perhaps this is an opportune time for me to weigh in with my experience of riding down George St at peak hour tonight. Apart from nearly mowing down half a dozen pedestrians who decided that if they stepped out in front of me against the lights, I'd be able to slow down from 40km/h to avoid hitting them. They only stepped back when they realised that:

1. I had no hope of slowing my bulging mass, as I was moving a lot faster than they expected, and
2. I really had no intention of putting my fingers anywhere near the brake levers - they could step back onto the kerb where they belonged, or they could get flattened

It's interesting how when you're on a bike, your body stance and facial expression can clearly convey a message to a pedestrian without any words being spoken. ie, "I have the right of way. Wait for the green light - now get the fuck off the road, or it's going to hurt. A lot."

The errant pedestrians were a mixed bag - old women, young women, middle aged women. Not a single bloke amongst them. None had earphones in, none were yapping on a phone. (Woman not yapping on a phone? Were pigs flying too?). None appeared inebriated in the slightest - they were simply in a hurry to get across the road to catch their train or bus, and they weren't above breaking a few rules to do so.

And then there was the idiot bloke. I was stopped at a red light (cyclist stopped at red light? Had hell frozen over?) and was watching the pedestrians crossing in front of me when a bloke ran across the road way back from the pedestrian crossing, and then ran straight into my back wheel. He bounced off, steered around me, stepped onto the footpath and kept on going without looking back or saying sorry. There were no cars behind me - I had two lanes to myself. The silly git simply wasn't watching where he was going. He didn't appear pissed at all - he was just a bloke in a suit hurrying to be somewhere else at 5.15pm. Possibly the Apple Store, which is what I was stopped out the front of.

So there you have it - my version of a man bites dog story. People out walking do stupid shit all the time, and  plenty of them do it sober. If we're going to ban anything, we should ban people with shit for brains being allowed to do anything. Including breathing.

(No pedestrians were maimed in the making of this posting).