The time has come to stand up and be counted. For too long cyclists have been treated badly by other road users, given bad press and generally treated like some sort of lower caste.

Last week there was the incident with the young girl who was run over by a cyclist on the pavement in Southbourne Grove.

Clearly this cyclist was an irresponsible idiot, but the level and volume of inflammatory and threatening comments was wholly unacceptable. Especially when considering that in the same week a pedestrian was seriously injured when in collision with a car, but they weren't any critical comments against the driver.

Some cyclists are irresponsible and don’t use appropriate lighting in the dark or run red lights, but these people are a tiny drop in the ocean when compared to the number of motorists doing the same things.

On Friday I rode to work on the road as I was running late and it's a bit quicker than my usual quieter and longer route.

I am surprised I got to work unscathed considering the aggression and sheer stupidity of some of the motorists. Not everyone was bad, hats off to the driver of the Yellow Buses number 21 who gave me a huge amount of room when overtaking, but some people were extraordinary in their behaviour.

To the driver of the Smart car who was trying to overtake me, despite the fact that I was in primary position in the middle of the lane and keeping pace with the bus in front of me. Never mind that there wasn't a gap in front of me to pull in to.

Following the unsuccessful overtake attempt, was it really necessary and, more importantly safe, to drive a few inches from my rear wheel and would you have behaved this was if I had been driving a car?

There was more than one incident of this nature, and then let's not forget the cars, buses and coaches that overtook just millimetres away from me and drove in the cycle lanes or stopped in the ASL boxes at junctions - these are just for bicycles!

As a cyclist I have the same, if not more rights, than car drivers, so it's about time that drivers were made more aware of this and start treating us cyclists in the way that they should - part of the traffic!

As I have mentioned lights and as there seems to be so much discussion about the few cyclists who aren't lit as well as they could be, I thought it would be a good time to mention the pedestrians, dog walkers, fisherman etc who seem to think that it's a good idea to stroll along the promenade or around Whitecliff and Baiter at night, wearing dark clothing and with no lights.

You can see me as I'm lit up like a Christmas tree, but I can't see you so don't look so surprised when I nearly run into you. Here's a controversial idea, get out of the way when you see me coming! Would you walk down the middle of an unlit road and expect the cars to swerve around you?

Whilst I'm on this subject (and seem to be getting into the flow of this week's rant!), I would like to point out to the dog walkers that your pets should be kept on a lead whilst on the promenade. This is stated quite clearly in the local byelaws. I would suggest that this is even more important in the dark!

My last couple of blog entries have been fairly calm and positive; this was intentional on my part. However, the events and press of the last few weeks have got my slightly riled, so I thought it was time for a good rant!

Based on information supplied by David Brown.