I'm going to let this correspondent (i.e. Mark have the last word:

Isn't it an extraordinary equation? Speeding, lights-jumping motorists kill people. Speeding, lights-jumping cyclists get killed. If the roads were filled with only cyclists, only the very frailest of pedestrians would be killed if hit by a cyclist. If the roads were filled with only motorists, lots lots more people would, and do, get killed.

How can people ignore this disparity?

The only reason a rule-breaking cyclist is a problem is that there are motorised road-users around to turn a minor mishap into a lethal disaster. It's the motorists that are the problem.

B-)