Jean Sideris, executive director of the Bicycle Coalition of Maine, makes some excellent points in her Dec. 13 Maine Voices piece (“It’s in our power to keep pedestrians and cyclists safe”) but omits one extremely important bit: Pedestrians should always walk facing oncoming traffic (i.e., on the left side of the road).

The reality is that there will always be distracted drivers, and if you can see the car drifting off to the side of the road, you can get out of the way. If it’s coming up behind you, you don’t stand a chance.

I cannot say how many walkers and runners I see with their backs to traffic.

Laura Gustafson
Lebanon

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