Apology of sorts

I’d like to start today by apologising to the lady I scared half to death this morning. 

"I didn’t mean to make you jump. I was trying to attract the attention of your husband who was about to crush me between a row of parked cars and the passenger door. I’m not sure that you showing him a picture on your phone, as he tried to overtake me between speed bumps helped, but that doesn’t make it your fault. I do hope your husband calmed down and stopped weaving, revving and cursing in a reasonable time and sorry for any inconvenience."

For the record I just said "oi" loudly and as she turned round I was a lot closer than she was expecting for the reasons stated above.

I think that too many people do not see their car as anything other than a convenient way to get from A to B. It is a privilege that history has granted a few generations. Personal petrol powered transport. It is not a right. Too many wars have been fought to secure cheap prices at the pump.

Things that slow you down are not necessarily put there on purpose to upset you.  In the above instance we were on a quiet residential street opposite a park. The speed bumps are there to stop cars shooting through an area where children cross the road at multiple points. 

Drivers and cyclists have a choice. None of us have to cut through residential roads, but cyclists often choose to for the lower volumes of heavy traffic. Cars choose to use quiet roads to avoid jams and congestion, but then get frustrated by the volume of cyclists and pedestrians. As a driver you do not need to race to overtake me between speed bumps then slam the brakes on to avoid grounding the car. It is neither safe nor economic to drive in this way.

Whilst I was thinking about maybe writing this post at the traffic lights on  tower bridge road (thinking about, not actually writing) a girl on a bike lurched across the gridlocked box junction to swing into a left turn against the lights.

This post could be written from any point of view.  Don’t be selfish and try not to kill people.