You have my sympathy as well Footie. I had a very bad week last week with many selfish drivers, ending with a van driver literally trying to take me out for no reason I could see. When I caught up with him his response was (peppered with about 5 F words) "you were in my way, get out of my way" etc, etc. I was livid and happened to meet a policeman on a bicycle further on the way home and gave him (politely) a piece of my mind about the low priority they give to bicycle safety in London. Their only response is to set up road blocks at lights to stop bicycles. I consider this to be a side show pandering to the motoring lobby. They constantly moan about those who go through red lights but then proceed to try to mow you down when you set off after waiting 'till a green - believe me, we cannot win. I asked my policeman if he knew of any prosecutions of drivers overtaking too close (highway code rule 163). I consider this the worse danger I face on the road - everything else at least I can see happening before me. His response was 'none' so I rested my case with him at any rate.
I think recent reports about the cyclists killing the pedestrian
Cyclists like this... we don't need. do a great deal of harm. This gets things out of perspective - a cyclist killing somebody is an incredibly rare event (and that is why it gets in the news). In fact I would say it is more a freak accident but I see this level of agression (and more) by car/van/taxi drivers every day on the roads. Substitute "out of my way I am coming though" with the blast of a car horn. My friend at work was left my the side of the road (and spent 2 weeks in hospital with head injuries) with a missing pedal. How did he get there? We will never know, because the police simply weren't interested. CCTV? There are so many of them nobody has the time to go through the footage even if they were interested.