On the streets of London, we're all as bad as each other

June 16, 2011

Everyone is selfish. That’s the conclusion it’s hard to avoid when cycling around a big city. Cyclists, taxi drivers, white van drivers, pedestrians, we’re all guilty, and it poses some uncomfortable questions about human nature.

We amber gamble, we cross the road wherever we feel like it, we do u-turns without indicating.

Maybe all road users should be forced to use other means of transport once in a while. When I’m driving, cyclists annoy me, and when I’m cycling I’ll be cursing a motorist every few hundred metres. And don’t get me started on pedestrians…

As the London Cycling Campaign realise, when you spend time seeing how the other half live, you begin to understand them better.

But I think the problem is something deep within the human psyche, especially that of city-dwellers. Everyone is trying to get ahead, to beat the next person. Everyone takes the little short cuts they think they can get away with.