‘I rang her, and she showed me this’: Zagreb cyclist angered by pedestrian on bike path

A bicycle ride along Zagrebačka Avenue ended in an unpleasant confrontation for a Zagreb woman who said a pedestrian walking a dog refused to move from the middle of the bike path.

The cyclist wrote on Reddit that she rang her bell after seeing the woman from a distance. According to her account, the woman ignored the first ring and continued ignoring it when the cyclist rang again. After finally passing, the cyclist raised her hands in frustration. She said the pedestrian responded by showing her the middle finger.

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You are unwanted by drivers if you are on the road, unwanted by pedestrians... Where am I supposed to go?

The incident prompted the cyclist to question why people, in her view, have recently become so rude to complete strangers. She recalled another encounter in which she asked an older woman to move aside while she was riding. That woman allegedly insulted her because she was not on a bike path.

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I ring, she ignores me. I keep ringing, she ignores me.

The discussion widened into a debate about how cyclists fit into Zagreb’s traffic. One Reddit user who says he rides almost every day wrote, “You are unwanted by drivers if you are on the road, unwanted by pedestrians... Where am I supposed to go?” He said he holds a driving licence, follows traffic rules, signals with his hand and tries to watch other road users, but still encounters rudeness from pedestrians and drivers almost daily.

He also complained that cyclists are often treated as the main problem in traffic while other violations receive less attention. Another cyclist said pedestrians had repeatedly walked in the middle of areas intended for cycling and refused to move, leaving her unsure how to respond when the behaviour appeared deliberate.

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It is great how someone is constantly crossing a solid line by car, running red lights and breaking rules recklessly, with crashes on every corner because of inappropriate driving, and pedestrians crossing roads wherever and however they want, but when it comes to cyclists, suddenly everyone follows the rules extremely strictly.