“Red lights are for controlling people who can’t control themselves.”

There is a particular t-junction on my commute into town where I come down off slight hill and turn right. As I take this turn I often find cyclists running the red light from the left and cutting into my path, so I watch out for them. As they are so persistent I sometimes call them out. Me: “Didn’t you see the red light?” … a bit of back and forth.. him: “Red lights are for controlling people who can’t control themselves.” And with that he went through another red light right in front of a police car on the other side (who didn’t do anything.) It seems to me that people who run red lights once tend to do it frequently.

I see this again and again. And it tends to be people in ‘street’ clothes and Deliveroo jackets. I don’t want to perpetuate an elitist view, but I think committed cyclists get too much backlash from motorists and the press when it is the casual cyclist who are RLJ and being seen doing it. Manchester’s Oxford Road to Fallowfield is a Student and Builders RLJ wet dream. When I go that way I catch back up to some people 4/5 times as they trundle ahead through the lights and I wait. Frankly I am bored of other peoples shitty behaviour, as if the speeding under lockdown wasn’t enough.

Just though I would share the most moronic thing said to me in a while.