Safety first!

As I stepped out of the front door of the flats this morning I was almost mown down by a motorcyclist ... on the pavement! Cyclists are bad enough but I really think we should draw the line at motorcyclists! This is by no means the first time I have come across motorcyclists riding along the pavement but this is the closest I have come to ending up under the wheels of such an inconsiderate pavement user. Supposing I had had a small child with me, one of those small Spanish children who set off at a run at every possible opportunity.

This particular motorcyclist was clearly in his way to park, on the pavement naturally, as close to the entrance to the Mercadona supermarket as possible. He must have ridden up from the direction of Teis. Then, instead of continuing on the road to the next roundabout, all of a couple of minutes ride away, and coming back to the supermarket, he would have crossed on the pedestrian crossing and then used the pavement as his personal roadway. Considering that it was not yet quite nine o'clock, opening time for Mercadona, I have to wonder what special offer he was afraid of missing!

I read yesterday that a report has been published showing that driving for two hours or more every day, as well as being bad for your heart (sedentary activity), is also bad for your brain. It's like watching TV; your brain is not actively engaged. (Unless of course you use the driving time to learn Italian from CDs, perhaps, which I used to do as I drove across Manchester on a daily basis.) Do people really drive on automatic pilot so much of the time? This is another aspect of modern life which is bad for us then!

It probably also goes some way to explaining the drivers around here who don't understand red lights! Or perhaps they do understand and just have an amazingly cavalier attitude to them. The other day I saw two examples in quick succession. One driver ran the red lights and then stopped, double parked, at a cash machine maybe thirty yards beyond the lights. Clearly it would have been too annoying to have to stop for a red light, wait and then stop again to get cash. Or maybe he was really being a good citizen and minimising the nuisance to other drivers of his double parking!

The second driver almost stopped at a red light but, when those of us waiting to cross the road did not set off immediately but just hesitated for a second until the green man appeared, she changed her mind, put her foot down and went on her merry (illegal) way!

I suspect my motorcyclist this morning has the same kind of me-centred mindset!

Do things like this happen in Madrid or Barcelona?

Where are the traffic police who wait vigilantly for drivers to exceed the speed limit on some roads? Do they never keep an eye on what goes on at traffic lights, especially in relatively quiet parts of town?

All this goes along with the mentality that says it's okay for children to sit in their car seats with the straps unfastened. This morning I saw a family loading up to go away on holiday, or at any rate on a journey somewhere. One of the rear seats was folded down and cushions placed on it to make a sort of bed for the smallest member of their group to travel on. No baby seat or even sign of straps or seat belt. The mind boggles! Just as when I see small children riding unfastened in their baby buggies, I was tempted to stop and give a little lecture on safety measures and the need to protect little lives! 

Rant over! I simply need someone to explain this arrant carelessness to me!