What a week! There has been a huge amount of discussion over the last week mainly due to the report about a cyclist who knocked over an elderly lady on a pavement.

The discussion seemed to be split into two distinct types; there were the cyclists who condemned the action of the pavement cyclist but were quick to defend cycling in general and then there were the anti-cyclists who as usual took every opportunity to rant about how all cyclists ride on pavements, run red lights etc.

I particularly liked the comment from one person who stated that he purposefully gets in the way of pavement cyclists just to annoy them. I would like to suggest to him that he has not gone far enough and should take the same action whenever he sees a speeding car as that would be an equally silly thing to do!

It is interesting to note that responsible pavement cycling is acceptable according to Home Office and Chief Police officer’s guidelines. It does also state in the story that these types of incident are rare, the statistics speak for themselves; more pedestrians are killed or injured whilst on the pavement by cars than by bicycles.

I do not condone pavement cycling, but I do understand the reasons why some people do it. As for Andy Martin's Look out for coward on two wheels column, I wonder if he understands what it's like to be a cyclist, he is welcome to join me for a day's commute to experience firsthand the treatment that cyclists get on a daily basis.

When I first started writing this blog, I thought that by presenting a balanced viewpoint and showing some of the issues faced by cyclists that I may change a few minds and help to adjust the attitude towards cycling in some way.

I have now realised that the anti-cycling lobby will never actually bother to read what's written and will always put their own spin on topics. Similarly there is a very militant pro-cycling lobby that, whilst I agree with what they are trying to promote, do not represent my views in the way I want them to be represented.

The number of bicycles on the road is rising and is going to continue to rise as the cost of motoring also rises and congestion gets worse. Those of us who are cycling are part of the traffic and we have pretty much the same rights as those people in their cars.

We also have the same rules that apply to us and, for the most part, we stick to these. Most of the complaints I hear about cyclists on the road are from people who just don't understand the rules and for some strange reason think that cars have more right to be on the road than bicycles.

There are two things that I would really like to see: The first is for people to just stop the arguing and realise that we all need to get along as things are only going to get busier. The second is for people to actually get a copy of the Highway Code and read it!

The road system would be a much calmer and safer place if everybody actually understood and stuck to the rules!

Based on information supplied by David Brown.