Why is London suddenly full of homicidal cyclists?

These entitled riders rush through red lights and expect pedestrians to move

- Melanie McDonagh

You see it every day: cyclists ignoring red lights and pedestrian crossings and pedalling furiously on their way as if the lights don't apply to them. A cycling colleague yesterday witnessed two cyclists colliding at right angles, having run the lights from separate directions. He observed with some gratification that they were both taken to task by an infuriated pedestrian.

I notice this now because a couple of months ago, I was knocked down by a cyclist and hurt when I was crossing the road at the bottom of Ludgate Hill. I was focused on the countdown on the pedestrian crossing so it didn't occur to me to look round for the cyclist who was jumping the red lights from the right. He fell off his bike and was surrounded by indignant fellow-cyclists. "You're the kind of prick who gives the rest of us a bad name," one declared.

The others asked whether I needed their details: "We're all witnesses." I could have taken a personal injury case against the man, but when you're shaken you just want to get away. And so I contented myself with telling him in a whisper not to do it again, and thus added myself to the thousands of pedestrians whose accidents with cyclists are not recorded, because it's just too much bother.

But even given that most cases aren't officially recorded, there's still been a marked increase in the number of pedestrian-cyclist collisions.