I often hear people talking about how much they hate cyclists for the way they ignore traffic laws by, for instance, cycling across red traffic lights.
It’s easy to demonise a category of people. I can feel the temptation myself. I am a cyclist, a driver, a public transport user, and a pedestrian at different times in London. Sometimes when driving I am annoyed by cyclists, as a pedestrian I am sometimes annoyed by drivers and I certainly get annoyed at pedestrians while cycling.
It’s interesting that some people get so outraged at those who cycle across a red light and yet will walk across a pedestrian crossing on red without a second thought. Or even worse when I’m cycling in central London, pedestrians who step into the road with their back to me, causing me to have to swerve suddenly to avoid hitting them. Most strange of all are the pedestrians I see standing at a crossing that’s on red, who look at me cycling towards them at speed, and then step into my path regardless. They then seem genuinely shocked to find themselves nearly knocked over.
It is clear to me, the problem isn’t the mode of transport, it’s simply that some people are, well, assholes. [I’m using the American term because it just sounds better than the British ‘arseholes’]
The drivers who drive right behind my car on a fast road, needlessly endangering my safety as well as their own, can only be described as assholes. Pedestrians who step into a busy road and walk defiantly and slowly on the assumption traffic will slow for them are, without a doubt, assholes. And any cyclist who shoots through a red traffic light with barely a look out for cars or pedestrians is definitely an asshole. As for the cyclists who ride down the canal towpath at 20-30mph, just inches from pedestrians, assuming that none of them will ever turn around or deviate from their current direction, I hardly need to say it: complete assholes.
Now, because on the whole I am not an asshole, when I cycle down the towpath I cycle slowly and I consider it my job to get out of the way of pedestrians. It is after all a footpath. If I wanted to go faster, I’d go on the road. And most cyclists during the day are similarly considerate. It seems to be the 5pm commuter behaviour that brings out the asshole in people.
What this is really about is being considerate of others. Just because you break a rule doesn’t make you an asshole. If you want to cycle across a junction on red, when there’s good visibility, you’ve looked all around, and there aren’t any pedestrians crossing, then I don’t really care – any more than I care if you cross the road on red when there is no traffic anywhere to be seen.
So the problem isn’t cyclists. (Nor is it drivers, or even pedestrians). The problem is assholes.
Let’s all try to avoid being one.