The clocks have gone back and – like clockwork itself – the police are having their annual clampdown on cyclists who don’t use lights when it’s dark. This has some cyclists moaning and others rejoicing.

If the police are going to spend time enforcing road regulations, say the moaners, then they should spend it on motor vehicles, which kill hundreds of people and seriously injure tens of thousands every year.

Give me £1 for every Oxfordshire motorist that doesn’t break the speed limit and I’d retire tomorrow. There are still plenty of people using a mobile while driving – even driving with lights that don’t work. And what about the amazing one in 10 drivers who still drink-drive? There’s a strong case for the police sticking to their usual priorities and not bothering with relatively harmless highway infractions by cyclists. Cars, buses and trucks are the real killers.

It is easy to forget to take your lights off during the morning, and batteries do go flat, so it’s a real conscious effort for cyclists to be lit, rather than something that’s automatically there as with a car.

It does drive me crazy when people on bikes behave like idiots. Most of the great unlit are occasional cyclists, accidental cyclists almost, here for a few terms, until their chain seizes up for good or their feeble cable lock is clipped by thieves. The other evening, at successive sets of red lights, dark-clad students on unlit jalopies cruised on through.

When I caught up with these slowcoaches, I remonstrated. The advice fell on deaf ears – what’s a 20-year-old with Champagne on their mind going to say to a middle aged do-gooder banging on about bike lights?

The city streets are brightly lit, and drivers can see a cyclist on a road as clearly as they can see a pedestrian crossing one. We don’t make walkers wear lights.

With this annual police clampdown, I’m more of a rejoicer than a moaner.

Those naughty students should know that every single time an officer sees them without lights at night, they’ll get nicked. I for one would welcome a situation in which cyclists knew that every time a police officer saw them breaking any law they’d get nicked. Or better still, to opt for a reduced fine if they attended a rigorous cycling awareness training session.

But the police, on squeezed budgets and with limited officer numbers, have more serious issues to contend with than unlit cyclists.

If you think about it, most cyclists’ infractions are little more than plain annoying. They aggravate the hell out of me, out of you maybe. They definitely aggravate the hell out of poor pedestrians and dyspeptic drivers who need someone to have a pop at.

People on bikes can be annoying but put into the whole road perspective, are rarely very dangerous.