A Belgian friend recently told me that, in Belgium the fastest vehicle in an accident is a considered to be at fault, so if a car hits a bicycle, it is the car's fault.

The insurance premiums have increased so much that drivers would have to stop driving if they had an accident - so cycling is much safer there.

On one occasion while cycling in Belgium last year, I was riding slowly up hill with a car behind me. It could not overtake as traffic was coming the other way.

He did not hoot or shout at me, but waited until it was safe for him to overtake.

In Bruges, bicycles and pedestrians mingle quite easily around the shops, cyclists riding slowly and with care because, if they hit a pedestrian they would be fined.

If they did the same along the seafront in Brighton and Hove we would not have the problem we have at present with people on bikes riding too fast for safety and causing bad feeling against them.

Many car drivers are cyclists, many cyclists are car drivers and we are all pedestrians.

We should all try to be careful and polite to each other, no matter what form

of transport we use.

I can dream, I suppose.

-Frank Blake, Hove