The problem with most cyclists is...

...that they don't have a driving licence.

They shoot out of driveways without looking left and right to see if anything is coming on the pavement. They pull out without a backward glance over their shoulder to see if anything is already coming up behind them. They fail to stop at road junctions when the users of the road crossing theirs actually have right of way. They jump traffic lights. They cut corners. They ride on the wrong side of the road.

If drivers behaved like cyclists, there would be carnage on the roads. Bodies would be piled high. 

A couple of years ago, I took some driving lessons just to keep up my driving skills and the driving instructor told me that taking a driving test at the age of 18 and straight after Abitur (A levels) was no longer a 'rite of passage'. Thanks to the good and affordable public transport system here in this area, teenagers didn't need to rely on private transport to get around.

However, when they got to a certain stage in their career - so the instructor told me - they find that they are in sudden need of a driving licence when their employer states that they need one for their job - to go with the company car they'll be getting. The instructor, therefore, had a lot of people learning to drive in their mid-30s. Until that age, they have had no idea about the rules of the road.

In the UK, the Highway Code - the 'bible' for people learning to drive and wishing to take their driving test - includes sections for pedestrians, horse riders, cyclists and motorcycle riders. This is not the case in Germany. When I came here many years ago and acquired a second-hand bicycle, I went to the local library and went to the 'learning to drive' section and enquired where the section on cyclists in the book was. Reader - there was none. And the librarian couldn't really understand what I wanted. Road rules for cyclists? What are they?

A few weeks ago, I was setting off on an afternoon walk. The pavement has a cycle path to the left and a part for pedestrians on the right. The three people in front of me were all on the right-hand side of the path: two young women and a man behind them. As the women were rather slow, the man started to walk faster to overtake them. But...and this is the main point here... but before he stepped onto the cycle path to overtake them, he looked over his shoulder to see if anything was coming up behind him. 

When I saw this, I caught up with him and asked him whether or not he had a driving licence. He had. Shame most cyclists don't. They'd then have some better road manners. As it is, I feel that cyclists are a bigger threat to me than drivers. Even when I'm on a bike myself.