Ready Kids › Getting Around Without a Car › Badge 2 › Lesson 2.3
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People on foot
Pass a walker on a shared path wide, slow and with a warning, every time.
1Watch
From the other side
From the other side
A woman walking a dog on a shared path, earbuds in. From behind, an e-bike closes fast and silent. The dog drifts left on its lead. The rider is two seconds off. Freeze.
18 secondsYou have been the walker. You know what it is like when something fast goes past without warning.
2The idea
You have swapped roles
For years you were the small, slow one, and the rule was that cars had to look out for you. On a path, you are the car. The walker is slow, unpredictable and cannot hear you coming. Everything you wanted drivers to do for you, you now do for them.
An e-bike on a path is silent and doing 15 mph. A walker turning round into that is a hospital trip for the walker, and it is your fault, whatever they did. The path is theirs first.
3The steps
Say something, slow down, pass wide
Say something early: a bell, or “passing on your left” in a normal voice, about three seconds before you reach them. Early enough to hear it and stay put.
Slow right down: near walking pace by the time you are close.
Pass wide: on their left, a full arm’s length or more, further if they have a dog, a child or a pram.
Dogs, small kids and people in headphones get more of all three. A dog on a lead is a moving line you cannot see the end of.
4Worked example
The dog, done right
Twenty metres back you ring the bell. She does not react: earbuds. So you slow, and by ten metres you are at walking pace with your fingers on the brakes. The dog crosses in front of her. You stop. She looks up, sees you, pulls the lead in. You say thanks and pass wide on the grass side.
Nothing happened. That is what it looks like when it goes right. Fifteen seconds lost. The alternative was a lead across your front wheel.
5Look
Passing on the left
Passing on the left
Top-down view of a shared path: a walker keeping right, the rider passing on their left with a gap wider than the walker's outstretched arm, and a wavy line showing where the walker might drift.
In right-hand traffic countries you pass on the left, the same as overtaking a car. The walker keeps right. If they do not know that, you still do.
6Decide
Bell or voice?
Pick one to carry on.
7Say it
Early, and in a normal voice
Say it before you get there, not as you pass
“Passing on your left.”
Early enough that they have time to hear it, understand it and stay put. If they turn round instead, slow down more.
8Your turn
Three passes
Three passes
Three walkers on a shared path: a couple side by side, a kid on a scooter weaving, a man about to turn round. For each, drag the rider's line and set the speed. Green when the gap is wide enough and the speed low enough for what that walker might do next.
The kid on the scooter is the hard one. Assume they will move into your line, because they might.
9Find them
Which of these get more of everything: earlier, slower, wider?
Tap the ones that count.
Find all 5.
10Do it
Before you leave this page
Ride two minutes of a shared path, or your own street, at walking pace. It is harder than it sounds. That is the speed you pass a person at.
Tick it when you have done it.
Lesson done.
You are the fast thing now. Say something early, slow right down, pass wide.
Take the Badge ChallengeBadge 2 · Where You're Allowed
2.1Roads, paths and pavements2.2Being predictable2.3People on foot★Badge Challenge