Proceed with caution

The old man shuffled slowly across the road; his hips stiff despite their numerous operations. Oncoming traffic swerved to give him a wide berth where the builders had erected barriers across the pavement. He was on his way to church and dressed in his dark grey overcoat and flat cap.

I was taking the hounds for drive to the country park and watched him hobbling on his crutches as I waited at the road junction. The sister, sitting to my left, commented on how dangerous it was for him to be on the road. But what choice did he have? The builders had dug up the pavement.

I'm a frequent cyclist and it's one of my bugbears that some car drivers don't seem to class cyclists as legitimate road users. They pass too closely to bikes and pull out in front of them at junctions. Most frighteningly they've also tried to overtake me and the daughters down residential streets when traffic is coming the other way. Part of the problem, I think, is that drivers aren't used to seeing bikes on the roads these days and they are also not familiar with how it feels to be unprotected by shiny metal armour. Car drivers, by and large, are not also cyclists but cyclists are generally car drivers as well.

Another problem is that we have, for reasons of safety, effectively separated cars and cyclists and pedestrians from each other. For reasons of safety we have created distinct zones in our environment for those who walk, for those who cycle and for those who drive. Conflicts occur when one or other of these zones meets another: when a walker steps into the road or when a bike rides along the pavement.

Watching the old man walking along the road this morning made me think that if only motorists were more used to finding their progress interrupted by a pedestrian or other less well-protected but equally legitimate road user, they may take more care and drive at slower speeds.

When you're in doubt you proceed more cautiously.