I grew up in the Netherlands, so learned to ride a bike early. I rode in traffic and on cycle paths all through my childhood years. Since I was 16, I've been riding motorbikes. So whilst this next blog entry might come across as car-driver-who-is-anti-cyclist, trust me, I know exactly what it's like to ride in traffic.
So it continues to amaze me how many cyclists breeze through red lights and then get terribly annoyed when motorists going through green lights pilot 2-ton metal boxes into them. It's not a country-specific disease I've decided. I dodged these buffoons all the time back in England, and I'm having to do the same trouble here in America. Being a cyclists and motorcyclist, I just can't understand what is going on in these people's heads. Is their brain malfunctioning so badly that death is the better option to waiting 30 seconds for a green light?
And on the same subject, why do the police always talk to the wrong person? The yellow-bibbed chap who nearly adorned the bonnet of my car this morning did so in front of a police car. The very nice (but very misguided) officer duly stopped me and gave me verbal about being more careful. He was oddly unreceptive to the concept that my light was green, giving me the right of way, and the cyclist had jumped a red light. No - apparently it's my responsibility not to hit people who break traffic laws and cycle out in front of me. It's very similar to the current pro-pedestrian bias that I see now. But that's a topic for a different blog entry.
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