Jim wrote:
Theres a simple way of dealing with idiots like that
because I've
done it. I was crossing a pedestrian crossing about 6 months back on a
green man
and saw a courier cyclist heading across my path but I just carried on
walking whereas
she presumably expected me to stop. I made sure she clipped me and
she

was sent flying badly grazing her arms. Tough.
I witnessed a cyclist ride at a woman pushing a pram across a zebra
crossing when I was at university in Bristol (Bristolians may know
Blackboy Hill, a long road on a downward gradient, crossed by zebra
crossings every so often). Without lessening his speed, he swerved to
avoid the pram and clipped the central refuge bollard, and went flying. As
he got up, he was swearing at the woman for "daring" to cross on a zebra
crossing. At one point I thought I'd have to intervene because he looked
as if he was going to hit her, but my mate, a great big burly guy, "had a
word with him" and he lost interest in this!


These are the worst incidents you can both conjure up after a lifetime on
the roads spent, I suspect, in eager observation.

I wonder if there is really a serious problem to be fixed here, apart from a
sense of jealousy that people are getting away with breaking the rules.

This is the impression I get. The expense and hassle of a bike
registration scheme are very unlikely to bring significant benefits,
even in terms of casualty reduction. Although traffic offences by
cyclists are commonplace, the magnitude of the consequences is almost
always far lower - generally annoying rather than life-threatening.

I'm sure someone will pop up to say that a cyclist almost killed them,
but the statistics just don't support this as a common thing - of the
210 pedestrians hit by cycles in the whole of 2004 in the whole of Great
Britain, 1 was killed and 42 were seriously injured [1].

[1] Road Casualties Great Britain 2004 (DfT), table 23.

--
Dave Arquati
Imperial College, SW7
www.alwaystouchout.com - Transport projects in London