Cyclists have been given a licence to ride on the pavement

Let me confess: when I learned that a woman pedestrian had been sent to prison for causing the death of a cyclist she had forced off the pavement, only my second thought turned to the horror experienced by the victim and sympathy for her family. My first, entirely selfish, thought was: there but for the grace of God go I.

For I, too, have shouted at cyclists who occupy pavement space when I think they should be cycling on the road (though school ma-am rather than swearing is more my register). I, too, have a tendency to put my hand out to keep an intruding cyclist at bay. I have even been known, by standing my ground, to force a cyclist to dismount at the barriers designed to stop them slaloming through narrow pedestrian passageways. 

As a driver stuck in a single lane, reduced in size to accommodate those on two wheels, I might also have been guilty of hooting at a cyclist, taking one hand off the wheel to point demonstratively at the mostly empty cycle lane that has been expensively paid for with my taxes.