TedMaul

This is just part of being a road user in a large, dense city. School kids are not the problem, *everything* is potentially the problem: cars pulling in/out of sidestreets at the last second because they are lost, white vans suddenly stopping and reverse parking, people on their phones - I swear it's only a matter of time before I encounter two people dressed as decorators carrying a giant pane of glass across Lordship Lane...

Mopeds (and to a lesser extent the dirt/scrambler bikes) seem to now be an established status symbol among some cultural sections of the young adults of today, and not just in London. I'm sure most own them legally, and use them largely to get to A to B, but peer-group pressure/social media bragging/Grand Theft Auto fantasising means that they sometimes ride recklessly in public. The hope is that - like the actual criminal incidents this year - serious incidents or persistent antisocial behaviour will be dealt with by the police, including bystanders taking photos and motorists submitting dashcam footage. In the summer holidays there was a sidestreet near the Morrisons on Walworth Road that - on a few successive bus journeys - bikes were using as a drag racing strip in broad daylight. I wonder what action was taken by locals. I'd be interested in people's observations on whether there has been a noticeable increase in mopeds (and also high-powered bikes in general) being more recklessly ridden on the roads of South East London, or whether statistically it's just that more people are buying them - and also whether motorcyclists themselves feel any more under threat of their bikes being stolen..