<p>The Good Samaritan may soon be extinct in Thailand if the police response to a recent road traffic accident becomes the norm.</p> <p>It all started with a run of the mill hit-and-run. A tinted-window Mercedes (is there any other kind?) side-swiped a bicycle that was dutifully trundling along in the gutter, bringing down both rider and machine. Nothing life-threatening and the bike was damaged but repairable.</p> <p>Not that the Merc driver knew. He was long gone.</p>

<p>It’s beginning to get on my wick.</p> <p>Because of the BMA’s farcical idea of what constitutes a ‘cycle lane’, I have a choice. I can pedal along the gutter, prey to the insouciant homicidal tendencies of the average Bangkok motorist.&nbsp; Or I can mount the footpath, use the ‘cycle lane’, and become myself predator, a danger to poor pedestrians.</p> <p>My confidence in my own magnanimity (and total lack of confidence in that of Bangkok bus drivers), induces me to choose the footpath.&nbsp; But I am not out of danger there.&nbsp;</p>