Got told tonight on my biking commute home that “you cyclists don’t have a voice, you break all the rules and you can f off” after saying to a bloke driving a car “you stopped in a bike box there mate” when he pulled alongside me at a traffic light (in the advance stop box).

He was clearly a Daily Mail reading tw*t, but why do people on bikes get seen as a separate species? It bothers me, as the label of “cyclist” seems to invoke all sorts of emotions, not many of them positive.

For what it’s worth, I do obey the rules when on a bike, and in a car, and I ride more miles than I drive. I know my Mrs woriries about me riding to work every day, so there could be a real impact of me being seen as this valueless object in the way. Once I am showered and changed I suddenly appear to be a normal person – go figure….!

Why are we seen as different?

It’s just a them and us thing. Small minded people dislike others who are different to them.

But he was a right fat c*#t – he can’t dislike everyone not like him – can he?

You don’t like larger people?

Social psychology of prejudice innit

I love everyone, just can’t understand why others don’t.

Lycra + hairy legs?

More seriously I think there’s a real social identity thing going on with cyclists our transport choices don’t conform with a norm that many people identify with.

Cars and the implied status that accompanies them, the importance of being a good driver, and massive part that cars play in people’s daily lives just means if you’re not a “car believer” you must be out of their group…and therefore a target.

Of course the propensity to remember only that which confirms your view of the world means every cyclist who rides like a **** sticks in your angry driver mind and every one who rides considerately gets instantly forgotten.

That and to quote suicidal tendencies “there’s a lot of stupid people thinking a lot of stupid thoughts”.

Small minded monkeys brains unable to cope with anything outside their small minded monkey lives. Same reason they gather on the terraces every weekend and watch 22 millionaire retards ruin a perfectly good lawn 🙂

Think it’s bad being a cyclist. Try being a Peugeot driver, nothing challenges the car morons than a lack of motoring aspiration. Might buy a Dacia next 🙂

you lectured him, he insulated you. don’t let it bother you.

At least you’ll be warm…

Could be something to do with looking gay with all that lycra, poncey shoes and helmet on. Plus you are so unsuccessful in life you need to ride a bike to work instead of being a real man and having a car. And here you are challenging someone obviously much higher up the food-chain than you about their driving.

What sort of reaction do you expect?

Cyclists have more blood flowing around their brain because of the exercise they take, so are more intelligent.

Some, though not all, car drivers, have reduced blood flow to their brain due to their sedentary life styles. Understanding the world is hard for them.

It’s not necessarily being a cyclist that triggers it – there are a lot of people these days who feel they can do whatever they like, and if anyone gets in their way or points out their errors, they use whatever occurs to them to fire insults back. If you’d been a pedestrian with a dog, walking across the crossing, you’d have been insulted for being a dog owner, even if the prat had a dog at home himself.

I regularly notice how few drivers take heed of these bike boxes. I commute by car and notice it every day – today was a Police van in lane beside me, right at front of box ..

Joe Public are an inactive, lazy and status-obsessed bunch.

They see cyclists as somehow cheating the system and “getting in their way”. The fact that the person on a bike is not driving a German saloon, SUV or pickup truck(with a rufty-tufty name) suggests to them that the bike rider should not even be on the same thoroughfare as them.

There do seem to be a large number of very fat men (then again, fat is now the norm for UK adults) who get angry with people riding bikes. These people would probably suffer a health scare if they did attempt to commute by bike.

-There may be an element of male jealousy involved.

This doesn’t explain the aggressive women in big SUVs, though.

Think it’s bad being a cyclist. Try being a Peugeot driver, nothing challenges the car morons than a lack of motoring aspiration. Might buy a Dacia next

Standard response to “what car do drive?”

“Oh… um… a white one.”

I mean I know exactly what I’ve got and know how to change its timing belt but ivcan’t think of worse chat.

i just tend to mind my own business whilst out on my bike. it helps to avoid confrontations.

“He was clearly a Daily Mail reading tw*t”

Well, we’re all guilty of making quick assumptions, aren’t we!

It was my attempt at irony

At least you’ll be warm…

I noticed. 😀

I’ve pulled up next to cars that have stopped inside the cycling box. I know it’s wrong maybe they don’t who knows but I do know that lecturing grown adults can lead to more problems than it’s worth when on a bike. Just get on with the job in hand and that’s protecting yourself. You know you’re a vulnerable road user so concentrate on anticipating and avoiding problems. You’ll be much safer for it rather than acting lord of the road. To be honest guys like you really annoy me as you’re not making life any easier for the rest of us.

It’s because cyclists are still a minority on the road in the UK. Doesn’t happen in Holland because everyone cycles.

I’ve confronted a couple of drivers before, one in a convertible who had no reason to do it other than block me. They just look dumb founded that a peasant on a bicycle has the audacity to comment on their driving.

I’ve decided life is too short to continue to confront them so I just sit in front of them, in between the box and where the pedestrian crossing is.

Hes probably like the morons at work who hate cyclists and traffic jams.

Bigblackheinoustoe – you might have the impression that I am some kind of cycling vigilante – quite a long way from the truth. I wasn’t asking for comment on my action – I was asking why cyclists are seen as different.

My comment may have been passive aggressive, but there was no malice involved, and he could have said “yes mate, I know”. Instead he offered his jaundiced view of every cyclist, most of whom he probably doesn’t know (he doesn’t know me for a start).

If I feel the need to talk to idiots crossing ASLs on a red light, I usually tell them it’s a £100 fine and 3 points and that coppers have started taking it seriously now, real friendly like. Most drivers seem genuinely grateful for the advice and surprised that what they are doing is that illegal. There is still the odd one who calls me a special word, they’re the ones I blow kisses to.

What Greybeard says. Plus, cars give folk an extra sense of…something. So many people flash others in/out of junctions and lanes, not because they are considerate or whatever, but because they want to weild some sense of empowerment that so many associate with being sat in a car. It usually has nothing to do with anything other than their own sense of entitlement and wanting to be seen to weild it.

Ask these folk to just back off the accelerator because someone isnt going the speed they want to travel / is clearly going to make it around the roundabout before they get chance to pull out / is on a bike / countless other scenarios, where they’re not going to get a thank you wave and instead just behave normally and be patient, quietly……then they behave like the dicks that they are, which, sadly, seems to be the default characteristic of most folk nowadays.

Something about cars that makes people think they are entitled to travel the speed they want without impediment. I’ll be damned if I can figure out why that is, but equally CBA. I’ll just put it down to people are dicks 🙂

We’re an out group. People who are a bit dim and lacking in self esteem tend to pick on out groups to make themselves feel better. It’s no longer acceptable to pick on people because of their race or gender (and most of the bullies seem to have worked that out) leaving cyclists as one of the largest remaining groups it is still “acceptable” to pick on.

Really? The people who really annoy me are those who actively endanger my life by driving too close. Cyclists having a word with bad drivers don’t even register on the list.

It’s Envy

We’re awesome, they’re not, they don’t like it.

Sometimes it’s legitimate to stop in an ASL box. If the traffic is slow moving, you’re right by the lights (in a car) and they go red that’s where you have to stop.

And if you get gobby with a stranger they’re going to get gobby back. The words used are irrelevant.

Unless the OP is being particularly weird and stopping at a green light, then I’m not sure of the relevance of that to this thread.

Meanwhile I’m not sure how what he said to the driver is “being gobby” (and nor do I see what is wrong with challenging bad behaviour). Of course a dick will be gobby back to you if you say anything to them.

Sometimes it’s legitimate to stop in an ASL box. If the traffic is slow moving, you’re right by the lights (in a car) and they go red that’s where you have to stop.

True, but how about not entering the box* if you can’t get over the junction – like with the actual stop line?

*Fnnnaaar

recall reading a letter a few years ago that said something along the lines of…”cyclists need mandatory training so they don’t grow up to be bad drivers”

used to walk to school with kids…surprised me how many people assumed you didn’t own a car…that’s how society is

i’ve concluded waste of time lecturing people about their bad driving…they either don’t care a toss about others or are just bad drivers with no idea what is going on around them…neither type is going to change

Sometimes it’s legitimate to stop in an ASL box. If the traffic is slow moving, you’re right by the lights (in a car) and they go red that’s where you have to stop.

It is an offence to cross the relevant stopline when the signal is red. Once you have crossed the stopline the signals are no longer directing you, so if you cross the stopline on green and then get stuck then there is no offence, unless you are sitting in a yellow box 😉

With regard to the OP, genuinely the people who hate cyclists tend to only think about a very small sphere around them. They will burn fuel overtaking a cyclist even though there is a red signal just up ahead because they only focus on what is right in front of them, they don’t look up ahead and they certainly can’t visualise the bigger picture.
To them everything is in their way, but they mostly accept other vehicles as they are normal. To them roads are built for motor vehicles and cyclists just get in their way because they are too slow moving, they are an unnecessary obstacle and should not be on the road. They look for things to justify their thinking, bloody cyclists jumping queues, going though red lights, getting in my bloody way again, etc.

Because they only look within their own little sphere they are unable to work out that sitting behind a bike for a bit is unlikely to affect their overall journey time, and that every single occupancy car trip exchanged for cycling removing 0.8 cars worth of congestion off the road which actually shortens their journey times.

Its not just towards cyclist, humans are quite capable bring utter pricks.
The narrative created around people on bikes in UK(and Aus/US) is so distorted by the press and motor vehicle intrest groups that it legitimises running people over and what not.

Who cares if he was in the box? Outside my son’s school is a tight ratrun alleywayvthat commuting cyclists ride down. I’ve asked them not to and been met with ‘why not’? None of your business etc etc. On our FB group there are mother’s who have been hit by bikes and sworn at. How can you defend cyclists? I’ve been told to f off when I beeped a rider not to try and undertake me as I was indicating/turning left at lights- no he was blasting up and I could see he was gung-ho so warned him with a beep.

Then there’s the red light jumpers. So I can’t defend ‘us’. I was once asked at a party ‘aren’t you supposed to grow up out of bikes as you grow up/get older’?!??

There are some logical fallacies in the above statement.

i’ve concluded waste of time lecturing people about their bad driving…they either don’t care a toss about others or are just bad drivers with no idea what is going on around them…neither type is going to change

Agree. Whenever I do get a driver to stop to point out what they have done they are completely unaware of how dangerous their driving was/what they did wrong and are immediately in a defensive mode.

Don’t expect a thanks or a sorry as you won’t get one.