I refer to last Sunday's letter, "Have right of way? Think 'give way'", by Mr David Wang.

I cannot agree more with him that motorists must give way to pedestrians at pedestrian crossings, but I have to differ on the view that drivers should also give way to cyclists at such crossings.

I have been driving for more than 35 years. For the past few years, I have come across more and more cyclists zooming across zebra crossings, oblivious to the fast-moving traffic.

The trouble is that the motorists may not be able to stop in time for them, as the cyclists often appear suddenly.

I have encountered three such incidents involving reckless cyclists in the last few months ? all three riders appeared to be from China.

As more foreigners come to Singapore to live and work, this kind of road behaviour will become a serious problem.

As many of these foreigners may not understand English, there should be campaigns and public-education programmes in Chinese to tell these cyclists to stop at pedestrian crossings, and push their bicycles across.

Also, they should be fined if they fail to do so.

Matthew Yeo

Read also: Have right of way? Think 'give way'

This article was first published in The Straits Times on Sept 28, 2008.

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