When I walk around London, I think about where bicycle paths should be. I can’t look at streets with the casual indifference I had before. Every time I see a cyclist struggling through the traffic I feel a surge of rage growing from my stomach and spreading to my chest and then heading towards my cheeks. That’s when I start thinking about how I might be able to find a way to help, something that will also help me the next time I cycle down that road.

A few Latvian cyclists were the first to have the idea of going on to the streets in the middle of the night and drawing their own cycle routes. My flatmate told me that the narrow traffic-packed streets of Riga, Latvia’s capital, are a constant threat to cyclists. Politicians ignored the problem so cyclists decided to do something themselves. One morning Riga awoke to find its city centre covered with chalk-drawn bike lanes. Then I read an article in a magazine about how cyclists in Lithuania were also taking cycling rights into their own hands, and I started thinking about whether I could do something here in London, too.

One evening, soon after talking to my flatmate, I found myself bored – and with some chalk in my hands. I put on my coat and went out the door. I was going to try this for myself. I decided to start close to my house, on a street I cycled every day. Barker Drive in Camden Town, north London, went straight by my friend’s house, to which I cycled often. It didn’t have a bike lane and I was sick of holding my breath in fear every time I heard the rev of a car engine behind me. I wanted something definite, something that would separate me from the street and keep cars away. Maybe if I drew a cycle lane, people would start thinking there really should be one and start asking for one. I know I certainly would.

Cycling is something that should be preserved as precious, and encouraged. When I’m cycling I’m saving the city from pollution, I’m diminishing traffic, I’m not taking up places on the bus or on the tube and I’m generally creating a nicer environment for everyone.

I usually go out on the streets to draw at about 1am. I prefer doing it when there aren’t too many people around. When it’s just me drawing alone, people react in a different way. From the way some people look at me, it’s obvious they think I’m just a vandal. Some people ignore me, others are a bit amused. I always hope someone will stop and ask what I’m doing, so I have a chance to explain and maybe encourage someone to join in. But most people just hurry past.

I’ve never checked whether what I’m doing is legal. Yes, I am drawing on public property but the chalk dissolves quite quickly, especially in London where it rains practically every other day. I have wondered, though, if what I am doing could somehow be dangerous. Some cyclists might think that the fake lanes could be real and follow them incautiously. So I am very careful to make the bike paths look obviously fake and at the same time to draw them where cyclists would actually ride anyway. When I cycle on a busy road, I ride as close as I can to the double yellow lines. That’s where I draw my bike paths – cyclists could not possibly think my paths were authentic and even if they did, they would be cycling where they usually do.

The most important thing is that I want to get people to think, to see the bike path and maybe take action of their own. I would like people, especially cyclists, to be aware that it is their right to demand bike paths. Maybe someone rushing to work one morning will notice my work and think to himself: “I could send a letter to the borough, to the mayor or write to my MP.”