Confusion
I was walking home from work tonight and I went to cross over Moorgate when it was on the red light but I could see a cyclist coming down the road so I stopped to wait for the cyclist to go through the red light but THE CYCLIST STOPPED AT THE RED LIGHT and I was so confused and traumatised and thinking how could that be? since when do cyclists stop at red lights? and then I went to cross over Blomfield Street to get to Liverpool Street station and a cyclist went on to the pavement but when he got to the pavement THE CYCLIST GOT OFF AND WHEELED HIS BIKE ON THE PAVEMENT. I needed a lie down to get over the shock but I was outside Liverpool Street station in the rush hour and thought it’d look odd and then I thought maybe I’m dreaming and in the morning I’ll wake up in the shower like Bobby Ewing or maybe I won’t wake up at all, like the Blue Peter tortoise, and I’ll just spend eternity being traumatised by dreams of cylists adhering to the Highway Code.
I like it when assumptions are challenged.
However it is difficult to be the cyclist waiting at the traffic lights whilst all the others sail on by, especially as you know you will be obstructed when you catch-up the slower ones. You just have to keep telling yourself that you are right and they are wrong.
Something needs to be done to change the attitudes so that cyclists see themselves as part of the traffic not a special group.
There is a great example of how it can be done, from Bogota where mimes were hired to follow pedestrians and mock them when they broke the traffic rules