Seeing red over bikes and lights

THIS afternoon (Tuesday, January 8) while leaving work a little after 4.30pm, the light was green for me to enter Hendrik Verwoed Drive in Plattekloof and, obviously, red for traffic on Hendrik Verwoed Drive.

As the front of my car entered the road, two cyclists jumped their red light and shot right through the intersection, mere centimetres from the front of my car! I had to brake to avoid damage to my car.

Upon challenging this deathwish pair on their behaviour, I was subjected to verbal abuse from them. Their view was that they have absolute right of way.

Cyclists, I have zero respect for you and your death wishes.

Any damage caused by you to my car and I will make a citizen’s arrest, call the cops, charge you with wilful damage to property/ vandalism/ reckless driving/ negligent driving/ attempted murder/ refusal to obey a traffic signal etc, and I’ll impound your bicycle, if needed, and hand it to the cops when they arrive or take it to them at my convenience.

I pay vehicle tax, fuel tax, vehicle licence and driver’s licence to be allowed to use public roads and you pay sweet stuff-all and still believe that you have the right to command authority and supremacy on public roads.

This extreme arrogance among the free-riding elite on their fancy bicycles must end now.

Perhaps you two, and those who defend your red-light-jumping habits, would be willing to identify yourselves in this newspaper forum and explain why exactly you believe that you deserve to reign supreme on the roads, for which I pay, and why you believe that you are safer shooting through red lights at busy intersections, rather than waiting in line as the road-funding motorists do.

Durbanville