Dave Arquati wrote:
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].

With the increase in fuel costs, parking charges, the higher congestion
charge, people not wanting to use public transport (cost, safety post
7/7, heat, multiple changes etc) and higher costs of parking your car
at a rail station (so you cycle to the station, or get a folder so you
can use it at the other end too) and many other reasons, the use of
bikes has rocketed and in London it now looks like Amsterdam or
Cambridge. However, these recent bikers have no road sense at all, even
if they've come out of their car to take to two wheels. The cycle
network is a joke too, meaning you quickly come to realise it's better
(and often safer) to take to the road than use lanes that can put you
in serious danger.

It's rather worrying that many cyclists believe they are legally
allowed to go through red lights, which explains why I'd put it at
about 70-80% jumping lights in London, from crossings (where the
pedestrians would come off worse) to junctions (where cyclists will
come off worse). Going on the pavement at speed is another problem. Go
along Embankment in the morning or after 5pm to see how close some of
them come to having an accident. People can take sudden turns (e.g. a
tourist stepping back to take a photo) and no cyclist can predict that
or react in time.

I'd be interested to see what the figures are in 2005 and 2006. I doubt
many pedestrians will be killed by a cyclist, but I bet injuries will
rocket and they don't have to be life threatening (and therefore
recorded) to give some innocent victim a seriously bad day, from cuts
and bruises to other relatively minor injuries or damage to property
being carried.

More cyclists will be injured too. In areas where the vast majority
flout the law, pedestrians are quite literally hitting back. I've
witnessed three cyclists being thrown off their bikes on a pelican
crossing, and the verbal abuse towards them is increasing too. It's
only a matter of time until someone is killed (cyclist or pedestrian)
not because of a collision but because of 'bike rage'. You can also see
that the cyclists that do abide by the law seem to annoy those that
don't, if being stopped hinders their progress.

To keep on topic, a registration system isn't workable. You just need
to have more cops issuing expensive on-the-spot penalties to those that
don't care, combined with proper education to tell those who really
don't know, what the rules actually are. Maybe Ken should push for more
REAL police rather than the plastic ones that stand around without any
power to do jack s**t!

Jonathan