Today's carless sunday in Brussels (well, most cities in Belgium). That means that within city limits, there's no cars allowed. Fine so far. All in favour. Some people get exceptions because of their work, and whatever. I'm one of them - I have to be at work at 05h30, so I can't possibly take public transportation. The speed is limited to 20 mph, though.
All of that is fine. What annoys me sooooo much is the sheer amount of people just suddenly ignoring all basic traffic laws (which remain in full effect), and rules of courtesy.
Yes, red lights still mean STOP. No, the fact that everybody's on bike or on foot doesn't mean you can jsut cross whenever, wherever. There's no law anywhere saying "if there's no-one coming the other side, you can cross a red". There isn't. So stop already. I've seen at least 20 or 30 ppeople go through a red on my 20 minute drive. ARGH. BIKES.
Secondly, I drive 20 mph. It really isn't that fast. It's still faster than you're going to walk or rloller skate, though. So let me PASS. I promise I won't run over your feet. If you insist on walking in the middle of the road, though, I'll get pissy and drive about 1 inch from your heels and honk. Go ahead and cry at me, I'm still in my right - there's a sidewalk; you're technically legally obligated to walk on that.
Really, how hard is it? Don't let your 7 year old alone on a three-lane road - there are still quite a few cars out there, and she's likely not to be attentive enough on her bike. Having to make an emergency stop at 20 mph isn't that big of a problem, but it's not my fault if she's swerving across three lanes that she get sscared by the big bad car coming up behind her. Supervise young children. Follow the rules. Be somewhat social. That's all.