Last week there were reports of aggressive driving on London’s near-abandoned roads. Today there is a report of another death there, not of a motorist of course, but of a cyclist. I speak as someone who has cycled in and around London since 1959, and as a member of the Institute of Advanced Motorists.
Driver error is the most common cause of road accidents. As long as we allow people with convictions for aggressive and threatening behaviour to hold driving licenses, as long as we issue driving licences without first ensuring that able-bodied applicants first pass a cycling proficiency test, as long as we allow all the drivers involved in an accident to continue driving before the cause of the accident has been established we will continue to see hundreds if not thousands of people killed in road accidents every year.
Were there to be five people killed every day on trains, ships or aeroplanes there would be a public outcry until matters were put right. But then it is much easier to impose discipline on other people than on oneself.