Are There Driving Laws?

I've just seen an Ocado van flying up Snowsfields the wrong way (it's a one-way street). I mean extremely fast. Why is SE1 full of insane life-threatening driving?
I don't think you will ever see a change of the lights at the junction of Blacfriars Rd/Southwark St/Stamford St without witnessing cars running red lights, especially those coming from the bridge and turning right. I've seen 8 vehicles do it. 4 is normal.
Why are there no laws?

There are laws, it's just people choose not to follow them! Ring the Ocado "Am I driving well?" number - they must have one - as I believe all their vans are routed.

I was almost cut up very badly by a private hire cab the other day, who very nearly struck my vehicle in so doing. He then proceeded to give a choice gesture. My response was to stop the vehicle in the middle of the road - he hadn't managed to overtake - and pull the handbrake. I leisurely exited my vehicle and proceeded to take his TfL registration number (from the yellow sticker). Whereas he had been all aggressive beforehand, he was obviously then worried that he would be reported and apologised!

There are laws! Mostly Road Traffic Acts.
They're just not enforced.

Going down one-way streets is actually one thing you learn not to do during a emergency call (police / ambulance fire), as it's likely you get stuck.

I have a personal grudge against people jumping lights (cabs and buses in particular), since it slows down traffic for everybody cumulatively, while only bringing a minor personal advantage (often not even that).
From that point of view, I guess it's in the interest of London city planning not to enforce red lights, since, if traffic is regularly stuck, more people will use public transport, which in turn will fill the city coffers and goes down well with the public.

Last night I was walking down Long Lane - a 20mph road. I saw numerous cars/vans etc travelling at least twice the limit. It's such a long, straight stretch of road with very little interruption (only a couple of zebra crossings, which are also often ignored by drivers). In my opinion some speed bumps are needed along here.

Just on the outside of SE1, Yalding Road is used as a real rat run - it's basically a single lane as so many cars park down both sides of the road, and all sorts of traffic absolutely flies down there.

Beetroot,
You could be wrong about red light jumping at Blackfriars Road/Stamford Street, the sequence of lights there have always been peculiar. I don't know if it has changed recently but it used to go:
Green north and south BR then red north on BR but still green south from the bridge to allow traffic to turn right into Stamford Street and left into Southwark Street and south along BR,
Then green from Stamford Street and red for Southwark Street and BR.
Then red for Stamford Street and green for Southwark Street and then repeats the cycle.
So it appears from the south, east and west of the junctionwhich all have red lights that the southbound from the bridge should also be red and traffic continuing south on what is green appear to be breaking the law when they are not

When I'm on my bike, waiting at the end of Stamford St I can see the lights for the traffic turning right into Stamford St. They definitely are red. They are still coming after the lights for traffic heading east from Stamford St are green! They basically keep running the red till the traffic heading east gets in their way. On the very rare occasions when there's only me on my bike heading east and no cars I have had to stop at the island because I don't want to ride in front of the cars running the red.
If anyone is interested and passing by why not take a look. You really won't have to wait long to see it.

When i get a chance I will have a look.

I find it mildly amusing, if not a tad incredulous that a cyclist asks the question;
Are there driving laws?
Maybe beetroot meant, "I know there seem to be no laws to prevent cyclists doing whatever they like, but aren't there supposed to be laws that are aimed at preventing motorised vehicles doing the same?"
NO, I'M NOT TRYING TO START AN ANTI CYCLIST THREAD!
Just commenting on something I see every day.

The junction of Great Suffolk and Southwark Bridge Road is insane when it comes to cars running reds. ESPECIALLY lorries, who i see several times EVERY day going through a red light there, at speed. Definitely faster than the 20 mph limit too.

It's also insane that people try to steer the focus on cyclists running reds and ignore the huge number of motor vehicles that do it. Especially when you see those tipper trucks running the red while there are kids on their way to Charles Dickens trying to cross the road.

As mentioned above, Long Lane is also a big problem with speeders.

Debrajoan wrote:

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NO, I'M NOT TRYING TO START AN ANTI CYCLIST THREAD!
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Very kind of you, Debrajoan - particularly since beetroot made it clear he had STOPPED at a red light on his bicycle when he watched motorists driving though it.