Yep, it’s a hunch. But if anything, the linked study supports my case: at a speeding hotspot, only slightly more cars are breaking the law than cyclists at a busy London junction (not a light-skipping hotspot). It’s bad data, but it doesn’t do anything to dissuade me!

As for your last remark… yes, I think perhaps it is rather wishful. People are, and forever will be, dicks.

I would note that my ‘cheekiness’ isn’t illegal — though perhaps that isn’t a good criterion for whether it’s OK. Hence my original point: I reckon cyclists are the biggest law-breakers, though probably not the most dangerous people on the road.

With all groups of road users, there are idiots who piss everyone off. We all need to just show a touch more respect for each other — wishful thinking?

How many cyclists do you know who deny behaving badly, but that you could say otherwise? The one’s I’ve met I’ve mostly ridden with and they appeared to me to be telling the truth, to the point where by one companion I was berated for running a red-light (yes I am one of those types, but I’d also like to take the time to say that although I’ve run red lights, I’ve never done it at a 4 way junction. I’ve only ever run a T-junction when not turning, nipped onto a roundabout, or skipped through a red just after the lights changed. However, I’ve witnessed some awful cycling in my 18 months in London and I know I’m definitely not the worst around…)

You also admit that you are a ‘cheeky pedestrian’, and that your odds of injuring someone is small, but it’s not just about you injuring someone or being injured (say in a direct collision) but possibly causing someone to injure either themselves or someone else – I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve had a pedestrian step infront of me without looking, causing me to either swerve or brake hard (or both!). Consider how you’d feel if your act of jay-walking caused a tanker to swerve into a school bus knocking it into a ravine/lake/other-such-tragedy. That said, I admit that I’ve stepped into a cycle lane without looking, been shouted at and have immediately felt the guilt, even when I should (arguably) be more aware of the risks.

In short, all people in all forms of transport are a spectrum, and a few are disturbingly unaware of the road users around them – so what do we do to make these members of the public more aware of the dangers they pose to the lives of their fellow road users?