Ummm...cyclists do kill pedestrians. And I have been hit by a cyclist as a pedestrian.
So yes. they are very much a hazard to pedestrians. And if you don't think a cyclist is a hazard than I hope that I am not walking near you when you are biking.
Cyclists do kill pedestrians... in a "man bites dog" news sense. There are fundamental physics at play, a 170 lb cyclist + 10 lb bike going 25 km/hour just doesn't have the same momentum as a three-tonne car going 90 km/hour. There is a very strong relationship between the speed of a car during the collision and the chances of a pedestrian's survival, and at the speed that cyclists can attain (keep in mind that they have less than 5% of the mass of a car), even if they collided with the mass of a vehicle there is very little risk of death.
There are some prominant cases where an elderly pedestrian has died in collisions with cyclists, usually where they get clipped and fall in a certain way. The same thing likely could have happened with a reckless asshole on a rollerblader or scooter.
According to this (alarmist) article, 3 people died in the UK in 2016 as a result of bike-pedestrian collisions (in a country of 66 million people, with a much higher proportion of cyclists than in North America.)
But to put those in context, here are the number of pedestrians
killed in collisions with cars in the US:
That's not even counting the cyclists, motorcyclists, and other motorists killed in traffic violence, or the serious or crippling injuries.
This isn't meant to defend asshole cyclists who aren't respectful to pedestrians: I've been hit by careless cyclists too (the most frustrating thing: there was a bike lane but he was
on the sidewalk!) But although cyclists can be a
nuisance, it's vehicles that are the
threat. Cyclists killing pedestrians is a statistical non-event, less likely than being
killed by falling furniture or spider bites.
It's unfortunate to equivocate between cyclists and vehicles because cyclists and pedestrians are on the same side of the dashboard when it comes to traffic violence. Measures that make streets safer for cycling (road diets, bike lanes, speed reductions) also make them safer for pedestrians. Giving cyclists better facilities also usually means getting them out of the way of pedestrians.