Rules Of The Road

You may or may not have noticed that I am a cyclist. I am in fact such a cyclist that I sold my car. As such I use my bicycles to carry myself and sometimes other things to and from places. I cycle on the road and on cycle paths. On shared use paths and bridleways. I do not cycle on footpaths or skip red lights. I use lights when I ride at night, and wear a bright item of clothing if it is dark or foggy. Personally I think of these things as the standard things a cyclist should be doing. Every day I see people riding without lights, and skipping red lights and riding down the pavement, and it makes me more than a little angry. The thing is, the cyclists that do that then stare in wonder and amazement when it causes a problem. Car drivers are (generally) quite aggressive towards cyclists. I think this needs change on both parts, not just the car drivers. The car drivers need to know that in fact they don't pay road tax just like cyclists (it is in fact paid for out of your council tax), and that what they actually pay is motor vehicle tax. For their motor vehicle (anyone else seeing a link here?). But cyclists too need to buck up their ideas and realise that motorists will never take us seriously until we play by their rules. So no hopping red lights, no riding on the pavement (ok, thats a gripe from pedestrians but we shant worry about that), and no riding at night without lights. If we do this and so much more there can be change, but like so many things, it does need a small amount of pride swallowed on both sides.