Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone could shed any light on a strange incident
that happened to me today.

I was walking along a road near East Croydon station this afternoon at
about 3:30pm. At a busy junction, I came to a pedestrian crossing,
pressed the button and crossed when the green man appeared. In doing so,
on one side of the road I had to walk between queuing cars, which
unusually had not blocked the crossing. I then continued on my merry way.

After about 20 metres, I heard someone yelling abuse behind me. I turned
around, and a man in a white van yelled "dickhead" and "prick" at me,
amongst other things, before driving off over the crossing I had just
used. No-one else was around, so I can only assume this was directed at
me. He must have been several vehicles from the crossing when I used it,
but would probably have seen me.

I would have dismissed this as a slightly bizarre but hardly unexpected
development in drivers' attitude towards pedestrians, except for
something that occured to me later. In ten years of living in London, I
have only been verbally abused from a vehicle once before. It happened a
couple of years ago, in almost exactly the same circumstances, on
exactly the same crossing.

So, can anyone shed any light on why I might have had such an effect on
"white van man"? Obviously, I don't care that I ****ed off a driver
(twice!), but I honestly have no idea how I did it. Are drivers now
outraged by pedestrians using crossings? I know this happens in the
provinces (seriously - try it in commuter-belt Surrey!), but in London?
I don't look very remarkable, and I wasn't wearing anything
provocative, not even my "Sun readers are secretly gay" T-shirt. I'm
fairly certain I have never met this individual.

Any ideas?

A