Do you know Steppenwolf? Not the psychedelic '60s band, although I could probably wedge into this piece an allusion to their song "Magic Carpet Ride." I mean Steppenwolf the book, by Herman Hesse.

In that 1927 novel, the protagonist, Harry "The Steppenwolf" Haller, dreams of a battle between Man and Machine: "Cars, some of them armored, were run through the streets chasing the pedestrians. They ran them down and either left them mangled on the ground or crushed them to death against the walls of the houses. I saw at once that it was the long-prepared, long-awaited and long-feared war between men and machines, now at last broken out."

One afternoon in the early 1980s I got off a bus at Beacon Street, in Squirrel Hill, returning from a work-study job to a duplex that I shared with some college mates. I had just been reading Hesse's man-versus-machine musings and was mulling them over as I trudged down the sidewalk.

Across the wide street from my house, lost in thought, I stepped from between two parked cars ... and into my own version of Haller's nightmare, this one featuring a Cadillac grill, my left hip and hard pavement.

I'll spare you the details, except to say that I'm healthy today. But that episode may explain why I'm keen on pedestrian safety. That, and the fact that I've got two sons, 9 and 12, who live in Squirrel Hill and are starting to navigate the neighborhood on their own and with friends, negotiating cross walks, speeding vehicles and other urban conflicts between man and machine.

It was the city's recent crowning of a "Bike Czar," Stephen Patchan, which brought these unpleasant memories and concerns to mind.

Officially, Patchan is Pittsburgh's bike and pedestrian coordinator. But over weeks of media coverage and incessant online chatter about his appointment -- a post about it at The Burgh Report, a local blog, broke a record for most comments -- there's been scant mention of the job's "pedestrian" component.

Yes, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and Councilman Patrick Dowd have pledged to better count car-on-pedestrian accidents (a chilling thought, really) and there was some talk at Mr. Patchan's press conference of finding money to repair city steps, but little pedestrian consideration beyond that.

I'm all for promoting biking. I've biked to work for six years and plan to roll from Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C., with my family for my 50th birthday. In fact, I propose recognizing the father of the city's newfound love of biking -- former Mayor Tom Murphy -- by renaming the Hot Metal bike and pedestrian bridge in his honor.

That being said, the city and its bike czar seem to have a blind spot when it comes to walkers.

Beyond the word "pedestrian" in his title, Mr. Patchan's job description includes numerous references to pedestrian-related duties like installing better crosswalks and signals, as well as a requirement of "working towards" publishing a "City Pedestrian Plan." (Full disclosure: I was interviewed for the post.)

The city's pedestrian plan has been in the works for more than two years. Curiously, PennDOT produced a "Statewide Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan" in 1996, and in 1999, the city generated its own bike plan that included creation of the bike-pedestrian coordinator job. The reason for the lag in completing an equivalent pedestrian plan is unclear.

Back in 2004, when UPMC researcher Evelyn Wei was struck and killed by a car in a crosswalk on Braddock Avenue, it seemed that time was of the essence to aggressively confront the city's pedestrian-safety needs. However, despite an energetic crusade by Ms. Wei's family and the Regent Square neighborhood where the accident occurred, it took more than three years for a traffic signal to be installed at the fateful intersection. (The city also paid Ms. Wei's family $465,000 in damages -- more than 10 times Mr. Patchen's salary.)

So with only two years of foundation funding in place for the bike-pedestrian coordinator, and with Mr. Patchan's current focus on biking, is it reasonable to hope that our pedestrian needs will be adequately addressed?

Maybe the city can take a cue from Newcastle, Australia, where I lived last year. About one-third the size of Pittsburgh, Newcastle is chock-full of traffic-calming and pedestrian-safety features, including raised crosswalks, abundant pedestrian signage, audible walk signals and flower beds extending from curbs to slow vehicles at intersections. Pedestrian safety is a visible part of the culture, too, from cars stopping -- always -- for walkers in crosswalks to car-inspection windshield stickers that remind drivers to watch for pedestrians.

Closer to home, a "Hometown Streets Project" kicked off in Oakland last month. Through a partnership of the University of Pittsburgh, the Oakland Transportation Management Association and the City of Pittsburgh, 11 intersections on Fifth and Forbes Avenues are being made safer for pedestrians. That's a move in the right direction, but such improvements need to be implemented citywide to protect everyone -- senior citizens to young children, as well as the occasional distracted college student.

If the Bike Czar plays his cards right, he could garner a slew of new titles -- Pedestrian Prince, Sidewalk Savior, Walking Wizard.

All it takes is that first step.