Hi Ray.
As a cyclist my self I will aoplogise on behalf of he rest of us mature responsible cyclists for the bad experience you had with the two wheeled "idiot". I have noticed this my self that some riders jump the gun B4 the lights change, I just look at them shake my head and wonder why. There is an add on TV just now advising cyclists to stop at red so the council have obviously been made aware of it and are taking action against it. As usual always the "idiot" minority giving the rest of us a bad name.
My pet hates of pedestrians are when I am on a dual function pavement which is marked for two wheels and two feet use. Some pedestrians are too busy with their faces buried in their phones pressing buttons to notice you are there or they have the head set on and I can ring the head off the bell but they can`t hear you. Options, I have keep advancing till they eventually look up and see you are there so we can pass each other, or I have to stop a yard in front of them.
Coming down a steep hill in the city centre shopping area towards the green light for the trafic to go I have had the unnerving experience
of pedestrians looking up and seeing me thinking its only a guy on a bike and saunter across the road only for them to have a brown trouser moment when I have to swerve past them shouting profanities. Lesson learned from that pedestrians in city centre shopping areas are too unpredictable no matter what the traffic signal is there are always going to be some chancers.
I nearly hit some granny with a kid this week they just jumped out from between parked cars in a narrow street, never looked right to see if any traffic was coming. I braked and circled round them I am shouting idiot at her she admitted she did`nt seem me and I told her if I had been a car she would have been toast. I think she may have too distracted with the kid to think about anything else.
As it was a short street with a give way sign at the end of it I was naturaly going slow to accommodate the rule of the approaching road sign so as you can see I may just be a cyclist but I have at least made the effort to learn the salient parts of the highway code I even have a large mirror fitted so I can do msm.
Ned I on occasion use a crossing to get to the other side of the road as sometimes you dont have a option if the next junction is a mile along the road and you have to get to a shop but the middle of the road is a continuous island or bollards. If there are people on the crossing I give them consideration and space its a simple as that those who dont are just selfish and inconsiderate.
Don`t have any lycra through possibly cos my bikes are all classic tourers and I dont have the profile or speed for the drag factor to make any difference.
Frank