Down to earth, without a baseball bat
It’s strange, isnt’ it? The moment you start to feel a little self-satisfied, perhaps even smug, you get brought down to earth with such a bump that you can’t ever imagine how you started out with those wonderful feelings.
For me, Wednesday evening was such a time. All was good with the world as I walked down Blackfriars Road towards the Transport for London building. I was feeling perhaps just a little self-satisfied because I was on my way to a meeting with SkyRide and British Cycling. It was a session for ride leaders and British Cycling officials to look back on the past SkyRide season, and to look at how it can be improved in future years.
I stopped at the traffic lights on Southwark Road. It was nearly 6.30, dark already, and everywhere was filled with commuters – cars, pedestrians, cyclists – trying to get home as quickly as possible. I waited for the lights to change, and as they went green I stepped off the pavement. I never knew that a cyclist had come round the corner, through the red lights, until I felt him brush past my coat and the chap next to me said “Whoa”. How he missed us, I have no idea.
Usually I support cyclists and cycling unfailingly, but suddenly I was on the other side, and now I know what it’s like. I had no contradictory feelings: I just wished that I’d had a baseball bat so that I could vent my feelings on the cyclist and his unlit machine.
I know that there are laws in place to deal with this type of offence (jumping the red lights, that is, not the baseball bat thing), and I know they are difficult to enforce. Pedestrians need to know they have the protection of the law, and so do cyclists (have you ever seen a motorist reprimanded for encroaching on an advanced stopping area, or for driving or parking in a cycle lane?)
But if cyclists (and I know – I hope – that this is the minority) cannot show proper consideration for other road users, they can’t expect to be respected in return. If we hope to survive and co-exist in the urban jungle, that is a law we have to learn quickly, and pass on to others. Preferably without the need for a baseball bat.
Heard today, and I have to pass it on: “You know you’ve had enough coffee when you can thread a sewing machine when it’s running.”