It’s hard to picture a superhero on a cycle, but after watching self-styled ‘Traffic Droid’ a.k.a. Lewis Dediare in action, I have to admit it’s actually doable. Dressed from head to foot in black lycra, with seven video cameras mounted on his cycling helmet, Lewis rides around the streets of London with a single mission – to fight a ‘war of attrition’. You see, the man has taken it upon himself to rid the streets of ‘idiot’ drivers who are a threat to cyclists like himself.

Among the 39-year-old’s other weapons are a camera mounted on a three-foot pole protruding from his bicycle, and a measuring tape. The tape is used to measure the distance that larger vehicles maintain from him on the streets. If it’s anything different from the prescribed amount, he admonishes the drivers and shows them a ‘red card’.

His cameras record footage of erroneous drivers all the while, which he then uploads to YouTube and Twitter. He also hands over the videos to the traffic police to make sure these drivers receive the appropriate punishment. According to Lewis, his ‘naming and shaming’ video clips have resulted in over 200 yearly police warnings and several prosecutions.

Lewis, a telecom officer, set out on his new campaign against poor driving in 2009, after he was involved in an accident while cycling. A car driver had failed to use the indicator and drove straight into the lane that Lewis was riding in. He ended up with two broken ribs and an injured back and hip. When he recovered, he learned that the driver was fresh out a driving education course. That’s when Lewis realized that motorists needed to learn about the dangers they pose to cyclists.

Traffic Droid now travels to work on his modified bicycle, recording every single moment of his two-hour journey everyday. Every time he encounters a bad driver, he takes the liberty of informing them that they are ‘idiots’ and ‘twits’. When he gets home in the evening, he uploads the footage online. “If you do something wrong, I have the invincibility of the law which I feel protects me and that’s why I confront people with the law,” he said. Naturally, not all drivers are happy about his advice; he’s actually been threatened by motorists in the past.

Traffic Droid was featured in Britain’s Channel 4 documentary ‘The Complainers’. The show features some of the nation’s most persistent complainers, as well as the call center staff who have to deal with them. For now, it seems that no driver in London is safe from Lewis’ all-seeing eyes.

Sources: Daily Mail, The Voice Newspaper