Bicycles on the road

I find it strange that laws are being passed to allow people who practice their sport to do so on public roads to the detriment of the road taxpaying vehicle drivers. It has been decreed that you shall pass a cyclist at a minimum distance of  1.5metres to ensure that you don't knock him off his bicycle. For a start, does everyone know what 1.5metres is? Do we get to attach a 1.5 metre stick to our cars to ensure that the correct passing distance is adhered to? If we miscalculate and the stick knocks the cyclist, do we say, Ooops!?

By my reckoning, unless the cyclist is riding in the gutter, you will need to cross the white line to overtake, which will at times be illegal, and at most times, impossible due to oncoming traffic. As the cyclists seldom ride in the gutter, the conclusion is that motorists will now be obliged to bow to the superior claim to the road of cyclists. This is obviously untenable and, in a country where the rules of the road are understood only by a very small minority and adhered to by even less, and enforced to such an extent as to be practically unnoticeable, the likelihood of motorists caring less is exponentially proportionate. (And if any of you understand that, you'll be a better man than I!)

This all came about by the habit of cyclists to ride in convoys, two and sometimes even four abreast, with absolutely no regard for the traffic legally occupying the road. To hoot at a cyclist to politely indicate that he is holding you up will invite filthy language suitable only for bars and garages, lewd hand gestures and uncalled-for aggression at the next robot when they all catch up with you again. The insolence! The powers-that-be made much of the need for politeness and consideration for other road users, asking cyclists nicely to ensure that they never ride abreast, but this has fallen on deaf ears. But rather than make laws to enforce single-file cycling, they want to punish the motorist.

But the real point of the matter is: roads are for transport, not sport. If you want to cycle for sport, go to the velodrome. You do not belong on the road, despite your being erroneously led to think this. The average skateboarder, rollerblader or scooter rider has as much right to be on the road as a cyclist, and a reasonable man would agree that they would be endangering their lives to practice their sport in such a place. Today I witnessed a pair riding abreast and holding up a long line of traffic. The car tooted politely and the cyclist nearly dislocated his neck as he swung round to glare with absolute hatred at the poor lady driver and shouted invective for all to hear. He made no attempt whatsoever to pull into the gutter where he belonged.

If you are riding a bicycle that has no gears, no self-inflating tyres, mudguards, a little light in the front and you aren't wearing red lycra, it is safe to assume that you are using your bicycle as a mode of transport to get to work or some such admirable occupation. For you, sir, I will pass at 2 metres.