Firstly, the subject, are you only against right wing cyclists?

Martin Underwood wrote:

I suggest:

- compulsory third-party insurance for all cyclists (to cover injury to
pedestrians and damage to cars who have to swerve to avoid them when the
cyclists go through red lights or whose cars they scrape as they overtake
illegally on the left coming up to a junction)

What is making insurance compulsary going to do? If a cyclist causes
such damage (which I have personally yet to see) and the damage was
such that you could claim off their insurance then you could also claim
off them. Anyway most cyclists I know (myself included) have 3rd
party insurance (but very few have theft insurance because the bike
needs to be stolen three times per year to make insurance viable).


- mandatory registration plates at the front and back of all bikes, with the
front number plate parallel with the handlebars (rather than parallel with
the wheel as for motorbikes at present) so it can be read from in front

As long as it doesn't get in the way of front or rear panniers, hit my
knees as I turn the handlebars, still allows me to grip them and isn't
expensive

As an occasional cyclist, I'd willingly pay a small surcharge for insurance.

Why don't you then? If you join the LCC you get free 3rd party
insurance with your membership (although the excess is not
insignificant)

Being responsible and considerate, I have never overtaken a queue of cars on
the left (I wait my turn, just like a car, or else I dismount and walk on
the pavement till I get past the obstruction)

Easier said than done on Fulham road. The road is easily wide enough
to have a cycle lane on both sides and traffic treats cyclists as being
in a different lane. When I stop in the queue for traffic lights I get
cars going round me up to the bumper of the car I am behind. If I am
being forced to the left of the cars in the queue, the traffic is
stationary and queuing, there are no railings to the left (squash
hazard), no junctions to the left and there is a decent size gap then I
might as well continue cautiously because I have been forced from the
usual road position by the other traffic.

Also, I would like to point out that "overtaking" on the left is also
illegal in cars in the circumastances it is for cyclists. Even if
there is a gap the width of a car to the left of the one ahead, you
cannot pass it unless it is indicating right or you are on a one way
street or in a different lane and your lane is moving slower. So,
heading left on Kings road, where the road goes left or straight on and
has different lights for the different options (near Parsons Green)...
any car going left which passes a car queuing to go straight on but
before there are seperate lanes is also breaking the law in exactly the
same way but car drivers are allowed to break the law - it's just
cyclists that are hated because their journey is so much
quicker...green monster?

and I have never gone through
a red traffic light or across a pedestrian crossing that has people on it.

Neither have I. Although at least half of the junctions I use daily
have taxis and cars which have jumped the red light and stopped between
the normal line and the advanced start line for cyclists.

But I think I'm very much in the minority :-(

Not sure. Once again, during commuting sort of times, there are often
many cyclists waiting at junctions with me and only a few go through
the red lights. On Putney bridge (going South) many cars go through
the red lights just before the end of the bridge. This is particularly
annoying because the whole point of those lights is to let buses,
cyclists and taxis (their lane is exempt from that set) get in front of
the other traffic and into the turn right lane without negotiating 2
lanes of traffic. This is useful for cyclists because it means we
don't need to be in the right turn lane all the way across the bridge
(delaying motorists who are stuck behind us) and the sequncing is done
such that motorists always have a green light once any of the lights on
the junction ahead are green so it hardly affects you. But despite the
light being on red for cars, etc. when I pass in the exempt lane - an
average of two cars ignores them.

I hope you understand these opinions of a considerate cyclist