The road toll nearly rose

again yesterday - twice. I blame the Clipsal 500 car race on the Adelaide Street Circuit. Ordinary car drivers seem to believe that they can behave in the same way as the hoons whose antics are legalised and condoned by a government which likes to believe that such stupidity is good for the state's tourist reputation.
I do not think motor racing is 'sport'. It is environmental vandalism. It also encourages hoon behaviour by other idiots on the road - many of them idiots who should probably never be permitted behind the wheel of a car.
On the first occasion yesterday I ended up in a hedge when the driver actually came off the road and onto a footpath. The driver was trying to pass another car in a rather narrow street. I had seen the manouvre from some distance away and swerved up onto the footpath. Until now I have used the roads rather than the footpath in the back streets. I think it will be the footpaths in future.
On the second occasion the driver simply failed to give way both left and right and caused several vehicles to brake rapidly. One car hit another in the rear - very fortunately with only a minor bump. The offending driver sailed straight on without as much as stopping - and nobody got the number. Horns were blown and road rage seemed likely to spill over but commonsense prevailed as people realised it could all have been far more serious and none of them were to blame for the stupidity of the offending driver.
With a heart beat far too rapid for comfort I waited for a very long clear space in the traffic to cross the road and continue pedalling on. Is it any wonder I never cross a road on foot?