We must amend law to put the brakes on cyclists using footpaths

Today, at lunchtime, I witnessed an elderly couple being knocked down on a footpath by a cyclist on College Road in Cork City. The woman was thrown head-long onto the roadway by the impact and would certainly have been injured or even killed but for the absence of oncoming traffic.

Both were extremely traumatised and frightened by the experience.

The Minister for Transport, Paschal Donohoe has recently introduced a series of on-the-spot fines for a number of cycling offences, but, in his wisdom, decided to omit cycling on footpaths as an offence. This ill-conceived decision will give cyclists carte blanche to mount footpaths with impunity and terrorise pedestrians, such as the unfortunates set upon today.