Many cyclists hug the left hand side because poor road design and the prejudice of drivers who believe they should be in the gutter leads them to believe this is the right thing to do. Combine that with ASL boxes that encourage cyclists to filter up the left to the front and you have a situation that encourages inexperienced cyclists to put themselves in the most dangerous position possible. Educating cyclists is important, yes, but so is road design and road culture. And we have a culture in which cyclists are castigated as reckless outlaws for traffic infractions that actually cause very little harm to others, while fining car drivers for their infractions is seen as illegitimate stealth taxation. Speeding can kill, using a phone while driving can kill - and these behaviours are treated as normal despite being illegal. Combine that with the use in narrow central London of large trucks with poor visibility, lax policing of drivers' licence status, and piece-work payment that encourages them to drive quickly and aggressively so as to maximise the number of trips they do in a day, and we get these tragedies.
Cyclists are to blame for being killed by tipper trucks because some sometimes jump lights? Bullshit.
I generally think our roads are set up so that the inexperienced are at a high risk of getting killed, and yelling at them isn't the solution. IMHO. Even though some tit on a bike knocked me off mine a couple of weeks back by being a tit. We shouldn't even have that aggression between cyclists on the road - it's shitty road culture that is the problem.
So, I think, why not be nice? Be part of the solution.
I posted this rant on Facebook this morning -
I generally think our roads are set up so that the inexperienced are at a high risk of getting killed, and yelling at them isn't the solution. IMHO. Even though some tit on a bike knocked me off mine a couple of weeks back by being a tit. We shouldn't even have that aggression between cyclists on the road - it's shitty road culture that is the problem.
So, I think, why not be nice? Be part of the solution.
And, group hug.