THIS snap of a young woman holding a toddler as she rode a bike down the wrong way of a busy Manunda street is enough to make anyone cringe.

Neither she nor the child, which looked no older than two years, were wearing helmets and she was riding with no hands on the handlebars.

Local worker Phill said he was so gobsmacked when he saw the pair on the bike going at "a great deal of knots" along Hoare St that he had to take a photo.

"She originally had one hand on the handlebars and was holding the child in the other," he told The Cairns Post.

"There were trucks going by - they were at arm's length. I was just shocked to see it happen. As a parent myself, you just get concerned seeing something like that."

The photo shocked the region's traffic Insp Bob Waters, who described the woman's actions as "gross stupidity".

"It really rings alarm bells seeing this," he said.

"She's not even looking at where she's going.

"If this person sees this photo of herself she should feel ashamed."

Insp Waters said both the child and woman would be seriously injured at the least if they crashed, whether another vehicle was involved or not.

He said many of the city's cyclists needed to wake up to themselves.

"Every day of the week we see an adult blatantly breaking the law," Insp Waters said.

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