We’ve been driving a lot more than usual lately because my wife is pregnant – or was, at the time of writing. Her due date is today. We don’t know if the little critter is a boy or a girl but one thing’s for certain: it’s a cyclist. It whirrs its little legs at an alarming rate. It has to be seen to be believed: my wife’s belly moves about like a sack of fighting puppies. A bicycle frame was clearly visible on the scan. A chip off the old block.

Driving has made me realise what a load of Jekyll and Hyde lot drivers are. In Dr Jekyll mode, drivers love to let you out of a side road with a magnanimous flash of the headlights. When they are nice, they are very, very nice, but – what shockers they are in Mr Hyde mode.

We were cruising over Magdalen Bridge at a sedate 20mph. The driver behind us had spent the past few minutes tail-gating along St Clement’s, and was clearly itching to overtake. The road widened into two lanes as we passed Magdalen College. I took the right lane for Longwall Street, and he sped past us in the left lane for High Street. Suddenly, he pulled into our lane, right in front of us. Cue harsh braking.

It is amazing what dangerous nutcases some drivers and cyclists can be, yet if you open the paper, all you read is rants against the cyclists. “Most Oxford cyclists are habitual lawbreakers” alleges one.

But do you actually know anyone who never speeds, to name a law most drivers and motorcyclists break now and again? Would you rather a bike or a car jumped a red light in front of you?

Having said that, I do sympathise. I am dismayed when I see cyclists breaking the law and riding dangerously. In fact, I have tried to persuade both Thames Valley Police and the county council to adopt a “Bike Polite” programme for Oxford.

“Bike Polite” would educate cyclists with messages about not jumping red lights, not riding on pavements and so on, backed up by a media campaign and web resources.

Under a “Bike Polite” scheme, officers would police cyclist misbehaviour blackspots and give miscreant cyclists a “Bike Polite” lecture or a leaflet, and a fine if necessary.

I spoke to the senior officer in charge of road safety policing across the entire Thames Valley.

He made it clear that his priority was to reduce the numbers of people killed and seriously injured (KSI) on the region’s roads.

Riding on pavements and jumping red lights, he accepted, are a bit of a nuisance, but given that more than 99 per cent of KSIs are caused by drivers not cyclists, he could not justify diverting any resources from policing drivers.

It is obvious why the police are reluctant with naughty cyclists. And even if they did, more than 10,000 motorists in the UK are still driving despite having 12 or more penalty points, by convincing courts they would suffer “exceptional hardship” if banned from driving.

Could you claim you’d suffer “exceptional hardship” without your bike? I know I could.