Bear with me whild I get it off my chest....
As car drivers, if we race on the roads we can expect the book to be (rightly) thrown at us. Fortunately, ZEDs have so much reserves of brakes and grip that in normal driving you have be an absolute idiot to prang it.
What I am increasingly seeing is cyclists pedaling for all they are worth, taking corners as though on a race track and seemingly oblivious to other road users behind with no mirrors or proper check over the shoulder to help them when changing direction.
We know motor cyclists can be very vulnerable - simply the speed they can do will take them near the limits not helped by vehicle drivers who are either not paying the correct attention or simply fail the comprehend the closing distances. Sadly the stats over the years bear that out.
What I am getting to is that the performance of road bikes and many of the riders, often running in pairs or more, that have improved significantly in recent years but, they are invariably on the limit such that when a potential incident between a a driver and rider looms the cyclist is at the mercy of the driver to make the avoiding action and woe betide any driver that is involved as clearly by the fact they are wrapped in steel or other hard materials they must be in the wrong should something go wrong.
And now we are seeing (all too well) those who deem it necessary to attach the brightest lights, often flashing and mounted in such a way that they distract drivers rather that attract attention to their presence. Certainly if we were to mount similar lights on our cars to show 'our' presence they would be deemed a hazard to other road users and points and fines (at the very least) dished out.
And yet there are no mandatory tax/insurance/safety requirements/MOT for cyclists and cycles on the road notwithstanding billions are spent on road measures to facilitate their use of the public highways.
Yes, I consider the time has arrived for cyclists to be regulated - and maybe a registration number to be worn on their backs so that their details can be forwarded when erractic and dangerous behaviour is seen and that might help to balance out the selected cam recordings cyclists like to publish when they come across drivers whio have not respected the cyclists place on the road.