This thread is just one more example of a particularly unhelpful phenomenon which sadly afflicts fora such as this one, whereby people with strong vews on one side of an argument routinely characterise all those on the other side as being exclusively reckless and irresponsible etc, while those on the other side do exactly the same in reverse, leading to a "dialogue of the deaf" - and zero understanding or progress.Why cannot these protagonists appreciate that just as there are eg some stupid cyclists out there, there are also some stupid motorists out there too? Which should hardly be surprising, considering we are talking about members of the same (human) race, not two entirely separate species.And until we get the message across to both groups that each should exercise responsibility to the other and not just claim rights for themselves, we will continue to get ridiculous assertions like the following: "Otherwise, the criminal element who ride e-scooters and push bikes will continue to wreak havoc in London."The net effect of which is not to educate or persuade the other side of the validity of your own case but to inflame them into responding with similarly ridiculous invective of their own.(My definition of "havoc" allows eg the explosion in Beirut, the demonstrations in Minsk, the wildfires in California or the appointment of Jose Mourinho to manage Spurs, not some dispute between red-faced cyclists and motorists at a traffic light on Chiswick High Road.)
Richard Cathcart ● 2233d