Attention pedestrians:

look where you’re going

After reading Monday’s article concerning the war between cyclists and pedestrians, I was upset to see that the article is unabashedly biased towards pedestrians and places blame for all bicycle-pedestrian incidents squarely on the cyclists. This is wrong. Pedestrians are just as much to blame for on-campus accidents as cyclists are, and the attitude most pedestrians have towards on-campus traffic is lackadaisical to the point of frustration.

I for one follow all traffic laws, signal my turns, etc., and I realize there are plenty of cyclists who don’t do this. However, there are plenty of pedestrians who cut off cyclists in bike paths and walk down the middle of the lane. I personally ran over someone last week on the Bear Down bike path because she was talking on her cell phone and stepped into the bike path without looking both ways at the exact instant I began occupying the space directly in front of her. Was that my fault? Hell no, and I’m not going to be treated like it was. (I let her know it was her fault, and she stayed on her cell phone, bemoaning to the other party, “”Some asshole just ran me over on his bike!””) Every single day I find myself swerving around idiots or braking so hard I almost fall off my bike because some stupid pedestrian decided that somehow the laws of physics don’t apply to fast-moving objects when those fast-moving objects aren’t cars.

Too often, I hear pedestrians say, “”What are you waiting for, they have to stop for us!”” and/or see them just meander across or down the middle of the bike path without a care in the world for what cyclists must go through to avoid splattering them. Would you walk across Speedway while on your cell phone without checking to see that there’s no oncoming traffic? No? Then why would walk across a busy bike path?

If cyclists are going to be ticketed for moving violations (which I totally agree with), pedestrians should be ticketed for jaywalking or otherwise illegally impeding vehicular traffic if they decide to walk down the bike lane (instead of the typically-marked “”pedestrian traffic only”” sidewalk conveniently located directly adjacent to the lane). If anything else, all I ask is that you LOOK BOTH WAYS BEFORE CROSSING THE STREET!

— Clayton Chu

aerospace engineering senior