THE dashcam footage is frightening. A young man on a bicycle dashes out of York Railway Station without looking and across the road - right in front of an oncoming bus.

The bus driver appears to slam on his brakes, and even so only narrowly misses the bicycle and its rider. The shaken cyclist dismounts on the opposite pavement - then seems to make some kind of gesture at the bus.

There will no doubt be a rush of people eager to condemn the cyclist, and to cite this as yet another example of the irresponsible - and even dangerous - behaviour that cyclists are sometimes guilty of.

Yet motorist Leigh Farrow, who recorded the footage, says he didn’t share it so as to spark an anti-cyclist backlash - he’s a keen cyclist himself. “It was more a general wake-up call for all road users to be more aware of their surroundings,” he said. “Every day you will see cyclists, car drivers, lorry and bus drivers taking pointless risks to save themselves five minutes.” Or even five seconds.

Leigh is absolutely right. We are all guilty of stupid, thoughtless behaviour like this from time to time. Motorists and cyclists jump red lights, go too fast, or pay too little attention; pedestrians cross roads in busy traffic, or without looking properly.

Every time we do something like this, we are putting not only ourselves but also others at risk. Leigh says that a motorcyclist behind him had to take evasive action as a result of the actions of this cyclist.

There’s a lesson here for all of us. Instead of motorists blaming cyclists and cyclists blaming motorists, we all need to take a little more care and be in less of a rush. Then hopefully we’ll all get where we’re going safely.