Strolling along Canberra's walking paths, now in distinct family groups two metres apart, pedestrians protect themselves against magpies, the sun, and obsessive 'phone-aholics. Without social and physical distance, walkers more easily fall victim to impatience or discourtesy from some cyclists. Now, with so many more of us taking up exercise, separation between cyclists and walkers is more essential than ever.

Even before coronavirus, Melbourne planned to construct dozens of kilometres of extra steel barriers to enforce segregation between cars and trams. After all, a tram weighs as much as 30 rhinos. If erecting barriers or bollards between those cycling and walking seems too drastic for the bush capital, then the selfish segment among Canberra cyclists might be invited to observe a few simple guidelines. Ten should suffice. Doubtless cyclists could draft a reciprocal set of admonitions for walkers.

1. Ring your bell when passing, or at least sing out

Cyclists, too, do well to keep two metres away. A cyclist racing past too close with no warning is needlessly, aggressively rude. Imagine the furore if a potentially contagious pedestrian barged and jostled, huffed and puffed, past.

2. Walk your bike across the bridges around the lake

Pathways on the bridges are the most constricted and cluttered in the city. Cyclists might take time to admire the Brindabella while placidly pushing their bikes two metres behind a pram or two.

3. Ensure you do not confuse a footpath with a cycle path

When passing, speeding or showing off, cyclists already push their luck. Cycling along a footpath past shops or houses is an order of magnitude worse. Self-isolation aside, elderly folk have earned a quiet life, without an obstacle course between shops and home.

4. Do not kid yourself that a super-speed limit applies at peak hour

Speed limits are a function of civility. When we work again in offices, being late for work will not excuse bad manners. Cycling is not slalom; nobody can safely zip between pedestrians coming one way, then another group walking in the opposite direction. For speed, use a velodrome.

5. Never double up to hog the path while nattering away to another cyclist

Just as steam was meant to give way to sail, so should cyclists make way, in single file, for pedestrians. Pedestrians in groups might well meander and gossip, shouting to be heard across two metres or more, but they usually do that on their own side of the path.

6. Take out your EarPods and listen to what is going on

The Chinese have a proverb about the futility of trying to smell flowers from a galloping horse. If not smelling the roses, then a cyclist might try to hear bird songs, dogs barking, water lapping or humans complaining about how fast he is going. A break from coronavirus updates is also therapeutic in its own right.

7. Refrain from cutting corners, especially when speeding

A leaning, grimacing cyclist is not only a fearsome sight, but a potentially lethal one as well. All of us already have plenty to worry about.

8. Do not be beguiled by watching the Tour de France

Mt Ainslie is not Mont Ventoux. Nor is the avenue of trees next to the National Library the Champs-Élysées.

9. Realise that, for retirees, a bike is not a low-cost surrogate for a sports car

Bikes need not be status symbols. Speed is not synonymous with manliness. A grizzled, tubby retiree with pre-existing conditions on a bike might have been better off buying that sports car.

10. Recognise that, if those nine rules appear onerous, speed bumps for bicycles could be quickly introduced

If social distancing hadn't worked, we were warned stricter measures beckoned. If speed bumps had no effect, and in the absence of rhinos, bollards and steel barriers remain separation tools of last resort.