How to make the roads safer?

you only have to look at the poor standard of driving in this country to see that the standard of cycling is going to be just as bad, i see no reason why cyclists will behave any different. i.e selfish, inconsiderate, in a hurry, oblivious of what's going on around them and who think it's o.k for them to break the law but not others.

+1 Every group is bad. I'd start with a cull of everyone who darts out into the road at a pedestrian crossing. You can see dozens of these people, and not a single one will have pressed the button. Why? They're too important for that of course.

Any real change has to be pretty fundamental and at a higher level than the individual or a single bit of road I reckon. Farting around with a cycle lane here, a bit of paint there, a TFL poster campaign there doesn't do anything. It's like "traffic calming", it's just tinkering lipservice and annoys people. Way higher up, you could start with seemingly unconnected stuff, like making kids go to their local school so they're not driven half way across London twice a day, give planning authorities the power and will to stop there being a Tesco Metro or Lidl Urban on every corner, start to remove unnecessary traffic. Or have government (national and local) that'll actually invest in public transport rather than painting it a different colour, just more lipservice. Random example, for the bits of London where the lack of other public transport means you get a continuous stream of buses fighting for road space along one corridor, put a tram in - more efficient, more predictable, people are more likely to use it and leave their car and those roads will be more pleasant. (Out from the centre east towards Hackney seems an obvious route for a tram, for example)

Umm, I guess all I really mean is the problem is too much traffic trying to use too little road. Triple the congestion charge, or something.