Walking to work – the victimless crime

I believe that pedestrians should be held more accountable for their actions, as I said a few days ago. This morning I saw a large man knocked off a large motorbike by quite a small pedestrian.

It all happened in slightly comical slow motion. The motorcyclist was approaching a red light at walking pace when the pedestrian stepped out from between two stationary vehicles and walked into the motorbike’s handlebars. Being such a large bike, it toppled over veeery veeery slowly and the large man fell off and rolled very slowly across the road until he and his bike were blocking both carriageways of Bishopsgate just outside Liverpool Street station.

OK, nobody was hurt. But I bet some damage was caused to the bike, at least to its paintwork. In an ideal world the pedestrian would have volunteered to pay for any such damage since she was clearly the cause of the damage. I don’t know whether she did or not. I have never seen a pedestrian do so.

If I’m making a point, it’s this – I’m not sure the law even allows for the pedestrian to be at fault in this sort of situation. The pavements of central London are overflowing with pedestrians on a weekday morning. They encroach onto the road and do all the other anti-social things I mentioned before. It is literally impossible to avoid them sometimes however careful a cyclist, motorcyclist or driver you are. And yet avoid them you must, apparently. If you don’t you end up with an annoying bill at best. Or as dead as this gentleman would have been if a bus had been coming up the other carriageway.