I got a ticket last week after running a red light under the nose of a motorcycle cop. I hadn't noticed either that the light was red or that there was a cop watching me speed through it. I was only interested in whether or not it was safe - which it was.

The cop pulled me over on a narrow path between the high boards of a building site and a temporary concrete barrier. This path is intended to be used only by cyclists. I leaned against the board as he sat astride his motorcycle writing down my details in his little book, presenting a considerable obstacle to passing bicycle traffic.

He told me that my running a red light was dangerous. I told him that I see much more dangerous stuff than this frequently in the normal course of a day - and quite often under the nose of police. He said that he understood how I felt (this is the Netherlands) but that didn't alter the fact that I had run a red.

At which point a group of kids sauntered past on foot, having evidently ignored the large sign at the beginning of the path indicating that pedestrians are not allowed to walk along it. I pointed this out to the cop, saying that here was a perfect example of what I meant. The kids were racketing about, utterly reckless to the efforts of passing cyclists to avoid bumping into them. I suggested that the cop give them tickets too, for otherwise it would seem that he had picked on me specifically because I am a messenger. To which he replied that he could not do everything at once, gave me back my ID and told me that I would receive a letter in the post with instructions about paying the fine and how to lodge an appeal against it.

Later, I found a site where all possible traffic violations are described and classified, along with the statutory penalties applied for committing each. Apart from discovering that I would soon be fifty fucking euries out of pocket, I retrospectively encountered a whole bunch of violations that were taking place under the nose of the cop as he was writing in his little book, all sorts of stuff that he was unable to deal with because he was only able to do one thing at a time.

Ironically, the last time I got a ticket was for walking through a red light (which turned to green when I was still crossing) from a cop who pulled me over as he was writing out a ticket for somebody else. So multitasking is obviously not completely unknown to the police here. Perhaps it is just that they give the particularly stupid ones motorcycles to play with.

Whatever, there are two reasons why we get tickets here.

Most commonly, the cops are just making up their quotas. Every day ordinary plods are sent out on a shift with a specific quota of fines they have to apply before their shift ends. Cyclists running red lights are the easiest prey, so standing at the right intersection for hour or so during the rush hour can eat away nicely at a quota.

Less commonly we are pulled over by some cop who has nothing else to do at that particular moment and who wants to exert his authority, to remind us that we are still subject to the rules of the road and that if we ignore them we can be brought to book. The irritating thing is that we never know when this might happen. For it is much more common for the cops to ignore minor traffic violations that take place under their noses.

Because the issuing of fines here is to this extent so arbitary, it is clearly not simply a matter of punishing those who violate traffic regulations. There is always a reason why individual cops issue fines: either they are trawling to fill their quotas or they are just exerting their authority.

As I was being fined last week, I knew this, and it enraged me. But I remained calm. For I know that in life, if that man was not on the back of a powerful motorcycle, that if he was not wearing a police uniform a crash helmet and dark glasses, that if he was not at that moment exerting the accumalated power by which this postmodern social democracy disciplines its citizens, he would not dare to fuck with me.