People who take the piss driving in built up areas. There are an awful lot of them. There's been a couple of occassions when I could quite easily have been killed; one night, halfway over a crossing with a very large set of lights (one of two sets within 100m, coming off a blind and uneven bridge, with bus lane and bus stops either side, and an exit from a large residential area, 50m from major roundabout), one car just drives straight through... I stop to gather my thoughts... take another step and another car just whizzes through. Thankfully the next car stopped about 15m short of the crossing, blinked his lights and waved me through.
Another one came so fast over the bridge in the wet he lost control and nearly went straight up the pavement.. seriously out of control and only saved by his cars electronics. Then you've got two lanes feeding in from the roundabout in the other direction, occassionally someone will just go nuts and floor it, and you can see they are not quite in control. And all the people with no hands on the wheel, texting. A tonne who accelerate hard on yellow. People who don't wait for the red to change back. People queing on the crossings... even supposed professionals... taxi drivers are the worst for this. They are also the worst for pulling a U turn into oncoming traffic at the bus stop to get back to the residential turning - there is a traffic island back there preventing a right turn - despite clear road markings preventing any traversing of the centre line, and there being a mini-roundabout a whole 100 yards further on where you can turn back.
Last night I saw someone going so fast there was no way he could have stopped for the lights, not even if they'd been 50m down the road. Today someone driving at 60 up the bus-lane, which also happens to be where people feed out from the residential area, which is a few feet from the bus stop and another few feet from the crossing. There's no excuse. The roads are clearly marked, they are clearly full of clearly marked hazards, there are traffic islands and - thank god - pedestrian protection. It's clearly 150m of complicated roads, junctions and crossings, but that just appears to increase the motivation to bomb through it for some.
I realised a few days ago that the best place to be at a crossing is with the pole between you and the traffic on your side of the road. Which is how it works... press the button and the placement of the pole naturally offers you protection. One of those moments when a little light goes on in your head and you are grateful somebody thought this through a long time ago.
But seriously. There are some really dreadful people out there.
