Call it an old man's rant if you like - but I'm sick of cyclists riding so close to me that I feel the air move as they swish by. One false move on either side and it's a mess of broken spokes and bones.

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This rant applies to pedal cyclists but increasingly to those on electric bikes with big wheels. These are motor bikes ... on pavements. I do not forgive them because they are delivering sushi to an office worker.

I've had three close encounters recently.

In the first case, the rider seemed to think that pedestrians in the very centre of Canberra were obstacles on a mountain bike course. For him, on the pavement, dodging people walking through Civic seemed to be part of the fun of the journey home.

The second case happened early on a Sunday morning when the sporty cyclists in Lycra speed in herds around the eastern basin of Lake Burley Griffin.

Their route is also the narrow path used by countless walkers, including me. Parts of the path, particularly on the foot bridge over the Molonglo River, are barely a couple of metres wide (yes, I've taken my tape measure out and measured it).

The third instance happened on the Canberra Centenary Trail which for a short length next to the Aranda Bushland Nature Reserve becomes a walking and cycling track. I stood on the path consulting the map on my phone and a woman riding past........

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