Yeah exactly, I know lots of people who think I'm mad for cycling through an urban environment and it's everything to do with dangerous drivers rather than the

Yeah exactly, I know lots of people who think I'm mad for cycling through an urban environment and it's everything to do with dangerous drivers rather than the environment itself. The key I've found is to be assertive but not aggressive, cars will dangerously pull out in front of you or overtake in a dangerous manner if you show the slightest lack of confidence or hesitation. It's not an easy thing to do as any cyclist will be acutely aware that Newton's laws of motion are not on their side! Having said that, I definitely think the pro-cyclist camp (which I do consider myself a part of) likes to ignore that there are a lot of utterly useless cyclists out there too. Riding on the pavement, jumping red lights, being obstructive in traffic just to prove a point for example. I wish all cyclists kept to the highway code religiously because the small minority of bad cyclists or overly militant evangelists seriously damage the reputation of all cyclists, most of whom are simply ordinary people who want to get around without the expense or ecological footprint of driving. Cycling ought to simply be a means of getting around, as normal as walking or driving. I understand this is how it's seen in places like the Netherlands, which is a far better state of affairs than here where cyclists are basically seen as vegans on wheels with all the drama that entails. Cycling shouldn't be a political act; I don't want to tell anyone they can't use their car for example, I'm certainly not saying everyone has to take up cycling and replace every journey with it. I'm not interested in telling anyone what to do with their life choices, I just want to get to work without getting literally run off the road by a mental taxi driver or clipped by a pillock who thinks its important to save the 0.5 seconds it would have taken him to check his left mirror.