From Road CC

It’s actually very good underlying news: loads more people would love to cycle, but they don’t because they’re scared of lousy driving. Conclusion: there’s a huge amount of latent desire to ride more, and slowly but surely we need to turn that into actual miles ridden…

All we need to do then is get people to realise that it’s themselves they’re scared of, cos they’re the ones driving everywhere at the moment…

The thing about seeing cyclists as brave explains the anger… they’d like to ride too but they’re too scared.

They realise it’s their own fear and their own poor driving that are the core problem and seeing a cyclist riding along confidently just reinforces that the reasons they’re not also rolling along in the sunshine enjoying themselves and getting healthy is entirely self-created…

The anger is just pure resentment that cyclists are able to deal with their fears, and they’re not… and just spend their lives fat, angry and trapped in a metal box.

I did ask a guy who was chuntering at our club group why he was being so hostile and interestingly he didn’t actually have an answer…

Haha.

could be a lot of truth in that final paragraph.

😆

My Mrs has been for a road ride on her own several times and has feared for her life due to badly maintained roads and selfish drivers!
She will not go out anymore on her own anymore 🙁

That’s in Cumbria to where the traffic is not that heavy!

My wife said she’d love to cycle but a tricycle so she didn’t fall off.

People prepared to point out the logic that flies in the face of popular ignorance always face resistance.

Hang on brooess, ninja edit? My comment no longer makes sense…

Hang on brooess, ninja edit? My comment no longer makes sense…

Sorry. Feel free to re-comment. The point remains the same 🙂

I might try this angle next time someone calls me a spastic for riding primary through a pinch point “don’t take your own fears out on me”… 😀

Car drivers are also ‘afraid’ of being shown up as stupid for spending so much money on a car when bikes whiz past them in heavy traffic. I, personally, think this explains a lot of the ‘Bikes being ridden through red lights’ anger that goes on in urban areas when just as many motor vehicles run reds. Can’t see that the fragility of the human psyche will change over night though.

Hmmmm I’ve recently given up roadriding

Scared is right, not sure its confidence thats lacking though. I’ve been cycling for 35 years, cycled halfway round the world on a tour, commuted in London but I won’t roadride the lanes and B roads any more.

I’ve decided that the risk is just too high – I’ve never seen anything like the animosity towards cyclists that exists here in the South these days. So confident yes, scared yes, angry you bet – but with a family I just can’t put my life on the line anymore

It’s weird really, because I do thousands of road miles on the B (and sometimes A) roads in the south – Surrey/Sussex mainly, and have had fewer real problems than I can count on the fingers of one hand.

Maybe I’m more tolerant, things that would enrage others don’t really get to me?

Maybe I’m more tolerant, things that would enrage others don’t really get to me?

I’m with you on this one. Had the odd idiot driver but no more than I see when I am in my car.

I ride road pretty much every day, yes there can be some aggression towards cyclists, but on the whole my mantra is “Don’t let the bastards get you down”.
I think there is quite a lot of thinking by car drivers that cyclists are too poor to afford to be able to buy/ lease/ whatever cars, and therefore beneath caring about. I’ve certainly had that shouted at me by some people, and there are others who find it incomprehensible that I don’t automatically use my car for a journey that a bike is obviously the best choice for.

The state of the roads is appalling though. The potholes are bad enough in a car. I’m sticking to offroad as far as possible – at least I expect it to be rough.