Three mornings a week, Lady P. and I travel by car from beautiful Bexley Village out into the badlands of Eltham in order to visit a close relative. Nearly every time we travel, we witness the antics of cyclists who really shouldn't be allowed on the road.

You know the sort of type I'm talking about. The ones who wear dark clothing in winter, never have any lights or reflectors, totally disregard traffic lights, conveniently forget the rules of the highway code and consider hand signals to consist of either the one or two fingered variety.

Before everyone gets out of their pram, I know there are responsible cyclists who do everything right and adhere to the rules, use their common sense and generally don't make too much of a nuisance of themselves. Though to be honest, most drivers will tell you that the sight of any cyclist on the road up ahead sets alarm bells ringing.

The trouble is, the majority of cyclists don't actually WANT to be cyclists. They are forced to pedal and sweat their way to and from work either because they can't afford a car/motorbike, are too mean to pay for public transport or, most commonly, are banned from driving for a year or two due to the fact they have been done for being over the limit.

From what Lady P. and I have observed most mornings, it is evident that quite a large number of cyclists are still over the limit from the night before as they wobble, swerve and suddenly turn into roads without signalling. If a poor driver who has just been scared half to death by these kind of manoeuvres protests by bibbing his horn, he can expect to be the target of some really quite obscene, nasty and threatening verbal abuse from the pedalling miscreant.

This very morning we were unlucky enough to get stuck behind a cyclist all the way down Vicarage Road and onto North Cray Road. This idiot - all dressed in black - doggedly hogged the middle of the road as he puffed and sweated his clapped out old boneshaker of a bike along the tarmac. Then, to top it all, those of us who had crawled so patiently behind him - for what must have been going on a mile - were treated to a one fingered salute when we at last overtook him on the main stretch of North Cray Road.

Hardly a very good advert for cyclists, is it? Oh, and I wonder how long he's got left on his ban before he is back behind the wheel of a car.

Isn't it time the police cracked down on these two-wheeling rogues? When do you ever see the police pull a cyclist over to inspect their bike or test their breath for alcohol?

Motorists have a responsibility to maintain their cars and be in possession of a valid MOT certificate. They must be insured and adhere to the drink driving laws. Yet cyclists can ride rusty old heaps without any form of insurance and get away with it.

I believe a cyclist can be prosecuted for being over the alcohol limit but why aren't they stopped and checked like drivers are?

Put simply, cyclists should be properly regulated and made to face the consequences if they break the rules.

Just like the picked-on, persecuted and downtrodden drivers have been doing for years, in fact.

P.S. Drivers, the next time you get banned, do us all a favour by leaving the bike in the garden shed and go to work on the bus.