Well, it's raining. Drizzle and wind and grey skies. It brings out the worst in the variegated road users and brings a whole new breed of suicidally inclined drivers onto the roads who are only there to avoid the rain.
Behaviour on our great, largely unpoliced highways and byways through London continues to worsen. "The rules don't apply to me I'm a cyclist" infection has spread to scooter riders, motor cyclists and battery car drivers. The rules are of course the Highway Code and the Road Traffic Acts. A modest confection of homilies and laws.
What does the "Look at me I'm a cyclist" infection do to its victims? |Well, they think that they are immortal and unchallengeable by anyone. A red light is an invitation not to slow down, let alone stop. A one-way street is an invitation to ride up the middle the wrong way, a roundabout where one should go round to the left is an invitation to go round to the right. Pavements are convenient shortcuts. Pedestrians need to get out of the way as they are impeding the brave cyclists at work. Do not venture onto a pedestrian crossing if you are nervous - near misses by cyclists abound. Hooting at a cyclist even if he or she is about to become a whole lot thinner involuntarily and messily, inevitably leads to a tirade of abuse, violent gesticulations, various obscene gestures and, increasingly, hammering of fists on the car's bonnet.
What is this all about? I have to confess I am not entirely sure. I know cyclists are vulnerable but they do seem more and more to go out of their way to get themselves seriously injured or killed and I don't really think you can blame the poor motorist for that kind of behaviour.
Even more worryingly, why should one section of society be above the law? That's maybe why so many more road users are trying to find the limits. With the police obsessed with the so-called fight against terrorism, an activity which results in most of them being missing from our roads most of the time, I come back to where I began. No-one polices the highway any longer. Observing the law is optional. It just goes to show that without effective policing, things do deteriorate towards a lowest common denominator.
