I've seen many newish drivers think that their car should lord it over any non-car drivers, purely based on the idea that car is king and they have earned the right to threaten or endanger non-drivers, pure arrogance. If they thought that peds and cyclists had equal rights, then I would expect some of them to drive differently. As it stands, even some incidents examined by the police (not all) get the 'just a cyclist, probably rlj'd' etc. without any thought or proper understanding of the event.
If presumed liability was in place, then a percentage of those drivers would behave differently. Not all, but some. Every little helps. It would eventually go some way to improving the standing of cyclists in the eyes of the public and perhaps make some understand how potentially vulnerable we are.
However, when I was last in Cambridge I hadn't even got the end of Station Road (200m walk) before I had counted 14 riders with no lights and 6 pavement cyclists, so I can kind of understand Sir Graham's comments!
Nothing would ever beat more coppers and enforcement, but that is unlikely.
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