27,000 uninsured cars seized by Police this year

Another stat for the OP to email to his idiot colleague… who no doubt will continue to insist that a few people on bikes running red lights are the biggest problem in UK road safety…

Await the moment he falls asleep drunk at the office party…then take a dump in his mouth…

me again. I already replied on page one or something and my recommendation is still to ignore him if he’s being pleasant and hasn’t raised it with you.

However another approach you can use which I sometimes use with people who bandy around lazy stereotypes about cyclists is to throw stereotypes back against them e.g.

– to the bloke in the German car who makes some comment to me during my commute “I’m surprised that a BMW/Audi/Mercedes car driver even saw a cyclist”

– to the girl at work who accuses all cyclists of jumping red lights “yeah well all you drivers/pedestrians are on there mobile phones anyway”

– to anyone telling me I’m not insured “looking at all the police roadblocks around London it looks like none of the car drivers are insured either”

– to the miserable dog walkers who moan about me being off-road ” Well at least i don’t leave dog sh*t all over the place/where’s your black bag, you weren’t going to leave it on the ground were you? or my latest one “where’s your dog licence?” (yes I know they no longer exist, that’s kinda the point)

Oh and there’s always

– to the taxi driver as we both watch a cyclist jump a light who says to me ‘that’s why people hate cyclists”;

“just cos we both ride bikes doesn’t mean he’s my friend”

and on and on. Depends how argumentative I’m feeling.

Start a vegan diet – stand next to his desk – fart loud and proud then walk away.

A reason why people are more inclined to jump a red light on a bike is the punishment (or lack of) versus doing the same in a car.

Combined with the low potential for any serious impact in doing so.

And only guessing but a lot of red light jumping is at pedestrian crossings rather than crossroads so you can see it is all clear so pretty safe to go across (as it is in a car but back to the first point for that)

don’t forget London rules apply to drivers for lights:

– Green means Go
– Amber means Go
– Red means ‘oh go on then, just five more cars’

(thanks and royalties go to Jo Brand for that one)

Starman’s take on traffic lights

I remind this college that cyclists are human beings and hatred of other people for a lifestyle choice is akin to racism and deeply frowned upon in the workplace. Behaviour of an employee on the way to work and home again is often taken by employers quite seriously. That’s a polite reminder from him to respect you on the road.