I try to keep the peace on my Orange Brompton

During my lunch hour (something I never really have) I popped out on my Orange Brompton to the post office to send an overseas letter. The journey was not far, perhaps a mile and half away but it was going to prove to be memorable for all the wrong reasons!

As I neared the post office on a fairly main road the traffic was very heavy but being on my Brompton I simply glided past to the front. I could hear people sounding their horns. When I got there I saw a motorbike on its side and a van parked in front of it both towards the left. Further in front were two adults swearing at each other and having a full fist fight. In addition to this there were kicks and more insults. 

It was an ugly scene to say the least and the level of violence on display in broad daylight on a Thursday afternoon at 12:50 p.m. in the middle of a busy high street was beyond belief. The sensible thing would be to leave them to it, not get involved and wait for the police to arrive (which they didn't by the way). 

I flipped the back wheel to the folded position and walked up to the two men still going at it and said, 'gentlemen there is no need for this. If the police arrive you'll both be arrested.' They continued and I repeated myself at normal speaking level and with that the motor biker walked to his bike, tending a bleeding nose. The van driver walked towards him and I placed myself between them again saying that whatever it was wasn't worth getting in to trouble over.

With more swearing the motor biker accelerated off into the distance. The van driver, after retrieving a bunch of keys (which I speculate he might have throw at the motor biker) got into his van and parked it properly in a nearby parking bay.

The traffic started to move and as I was getting my Brompton ready several cars started to sound their horns at me! I cycled to the post office and luckily didn't have to wait long. When coming out of the post office the van driver apologised and thanked me for trying to calm things down. He also wanted to tell me his version of events and how it wasn't his fault. I have to say by this point I was not interested and cared not. I saw how he behaved and he was as much a part of that quite disgraceful scene as the other. 

When I got back to work I was next to useless for an hour or so as I felt rather shaken up by it all. Perhaps I shouldn't have got involved but they way these two idiots were going at it, someone was going to get seriously hurt. 

With more and more cyclists on the road I hope that 'road range' between them doesn't happen in the same way it seems to for vehicular users. I still cannot comprehend however what enraged these two enough to abandon all dignity and reason. More still that the majority of other road users simply sounded their horns?

I hope not to see something like this again as I am not sure I'd get invoked again, even though I think it would be the right thing to do morally.