Twat on motorbike

However, 'acting like traffic' of course ...

...doesn't imply acting like those road users act at the moment who violate the Highway Code. Violations of the Highway Code by cyclists lower the status of cycling. The concession for getting to be treated as traffic is to subscribe to the rules applied to regulate traffic. Boring but true.

I'm the first person to argue that a lot needs changing, but until it is, remember how you're perceived and what brilliant excuses you're giving to people who want to have something that they can cite against cycling.

oliver I hear you, and I try to be like traffic as often as possible, but in certain situations (and you know what they are) I will break from being law abiding to get myself ahead of traffic, or just because I can.
How I'm perceived personally as a cyclist I can control, I can smile, be appreciative of traffic which makes allowances for me, make people aware of my presence, don't ride like a loon in areas where pedestrians have right of way, and generally be a good kind presence in the world, in terms of how cyclists as a mass are perceived I have no control over that, and no wish to involve myself in changing wrongly held perceptions apart from on a one to one basis.

Skully, just because I bite the proverbial internet lip most of the time, doesn't mean I can't raise my head above the parapet to give my point of view. I can chat just as much shit as the rest of you, I just choose not to, because it gives too much ammunition for people to lob back at you when you try to make a serious point. so there.. ;-P