LYING on the road with car tyres spinning towards your face is not a happy place to be. In my four years of cycling to work, it was the first time I had been knocked off my bike.

In December last year I was travelling down West Nile Street, in the City Centre, when a man ran in to the road ahead of me in an attempt to dodge the traffic. The light had just turned green and he was trying to get across before the cars started moving forward.

I saw him and I knew I wouldn’t be able to stop in time, despite braking sharply, so I shouted. He had head phones in and didn’t hear me.

The man spotted me at the last moment and it all happened so fast that I’m not quite clear in my head what the sequence of events was. I think, though, that the man’s instinct was to protect himself, as it would be, so he sort of grabbed my arm and shoved me.

I went straight down in the road with my bike on top of me. He apologised but didn’t help me up and then ran off as I struggled to get myself back up again.

No one stopped to ask if I was ok so there was only one thing for it - up and back on the bike again, despite my legs shaking and my nerves jangling.

There was no respite, however. At the next junction a young woman stepped right off the pavement and in front of me, forcing me to swerve to a stop. My front tyre was literally millimetres from her leg as she walked past me and she didn’t even notice I was there. Again, head phones in.

I love cycling to work. I bought my bike second hand for £50 from a colleague and it’s more than paid for itself over the years. It took months to get up the courage to think that I would be able to cycle on the road, even to the end of my street. Never mind from the South Side all the way to my office. I used to go out and practice, going a little further and further each time. When you buy a bike suddenly people approach you in the street to offer advice. I finally asked for a sturdy bike lock for Christmas there after no fewer than four strangers chided me about my old one.

Ok, it was a pound from Poundland but imagine going up to someone you don’t know in the street to tell them off about their personal security measures. Only a cyclist.

I had a bike as a teenager and my best friend Johanne and I used to spend every Sunday afternoon cycling around Coatbridge and once even all the way up to Airdrie. It was the specific kind of freedom you have as a kid when you have just enough independence to be out on your own without an adult but you’re not quite old enough to have any cares or responsibilities.

I get a little bit of that feeling back every morning when I’m breezing across a bridge over the River Clyde, especially on the rare days when the sun is out and the water’s glinting.

It’s amazing how bold you are as a young person and how nervy you can get as the years go on. I’m glad I got over my cycling fear but the fear is beginning to creep back in.

Partly it’s the wild driving of private hire cars - is there a special course they go on to teach them how to drive as dangerously as possible? But, a larger part is pedestrians.

Glasgow City Council is investing in cycling infrastructure - the South City Way for the South Side and Woodside Mini Holland in the City Centre. The Next Bike scheme has taken off across the city, meaning more casual cyclists are taking the chance to commute by bike.

This is all good news for making the city greener and healthier. However.

There are already a few floating bus stops along Pollokshaws Road and already it’s become a dice with disaster as bus passengers hop off the bus and into the cycle lane without looking.

Similarly, I cannot get through the City Centre without someone stepping off the pavement in front of me, even though I’m lit up like a Christmas tree and screeching, “Watch yourselves!” in a panic.

This will perhaps be seen as an odd view but I would very much rather be hit than be the one who does the hitting. I would never be able to live with the guilt if I injured someone, even by accident - hence saying I’m more worried about people on foot than I am about private hires.

So my plea, as we move to a more cycle-friendly Glasgow, is that those walking take care of themselves. Everyone is busy and in a rush, people like to listen to their music and quite often are glued to their phones.

But just be aware of your surroundings. Watch where you’re walking, don’t step into the road without looking.

I don’t want to end up on the tarmac again. But, more importantly, I don’t want you to either.