Fortunately, renegade cyclists are ignoring "the code"

While I was walking along our local riverside trail yesterday, a bicyclist approached me from behind. No surprise there. But what happened next was truly amazing. This guy zipped by me without shouting “ON YOUR LEFT” at the top of his lungs, as cyclists are wont to do under any and all circumstances, even when it’s clear that the pedestrian in front of them poses no threat.

In fact, he said nothing at all!

Despite this grievous breach of that holiest of cycling rules, we did not collide. The Earth did not shift on its axis. The skies did not grow ominously dark.

Moments later, another cyclist came up from behind. He simply rang his bell to let me know he was back there, instead of using the cyclist’s preferred form of communication, which is to scream "ON YOUR LEFT" like a bicycling banshee. Once again, no mishap. No clap of thunder. The god of cycling did not toss down a lightning bolt to strike this guy dead for his misdeed.

Could such isolated displays of civility and common sense mark the start of a trend that will benefit those of us who prefer to exercise on foot? Maybe. But many speeding, overly aggressive cyclists love bellowing at lowly pedestrians on multi-use trails. I half suspect that startling walkers by verbally assaulting them is what motivates such people to ride in the first place.