[Closed] Jeremy Clarkson continues to be a moron

There's actually no need for any debate about this whatsoever. Primary position is the recommended position for cycling in situations where an overtaking car can put the cyclist in danger.
It's what British Cycling recommends, it's what John Franklin in Cyclecraft recommends, it's what local authority-provided training recommends...
It's about taking the lane for visibility of the following driver and it's about preventing dangerous overtakes.

The only issue is that the general public (and many cyclists) have not had primary position and the reasons for it explained to them. To fill this vacuum some people choose to interpret it as deliberate 'blocking' behaviour from the cyclist, which is totally incorrect...

I really wish the general public would chill out about cycling...

Car behind is too close and therefore breaking the law. Driver should be prosecuted for not staying at a safe stopping distance

Seems to have stopped in time as they're stationary.

JC may (or may note) be wrong on the specific argument here, but a moron? Hardly. With a simple tweet he creates exactly the responses his persona requires to be sustained. Flawed argument, but top execution.

Broess +1 and lazy bike, to be clear, I think JC was 100% wrong wth his flawed argument but simply knows how to deliberately wind folk up. His main raison d'être?

Driver should be prosecuted for not staying at a safe stopping distance.

Should the cyclist also be prosecuted for illegally stopping within the limits of the crossing?

This comment made me laugh more than the original Tweet:

@gnomeicide @Stroppycow @lardychap Cyclists pay up or shut up and stay off our roads until you do.

Broess +1 and lazy bike, to be clear, I think JC was 100% wrong wth his flawed argument but simply knows how to deliberately wind folk up. His main raison d'être?

Well he certainly pushed mine!

Mods, please allow me to use this account for this thread only, I'll stop using it when all of this nonsense is done. I post on STW under a different username but I really don't want to be ID'd on Facebook,Twitter, etc as other STW'ers know me, and my employers may get the hump over it.

[b]Right then, from the horses mouth so to speak.......[/b]

I was riding home from work (this is one of my regular routes) down Sloane Avenue in Chelsea towards Sloane Square. As I approached this island at the junction of Ixworth Street, a Range Rover over took me, because he had to veer left to avoid hitting the island I got pushed owards the kerb.

Sloane Ave

[IMG] [/IMG]

There was no point to this pass as there was slow moving traffic a little bit further down the road.

Now I was pretty cheesed off with this and most of you will know a close pass starts pumping adrenaline. Sloane Ave is a nice flat road and it's really easy to keep up with the trafic and just past the island I was keeping pace with the Range Rover, the driver was looking in his N/S door mirror giving the 'stare'. I admit that I was fairly vocal at this point and shouted 'What? you f*****g c**k, f****** knobstick' not much of an insult but I was too riled up to think straight.

As we approached the junction with Cadogan Street the traffic started slowing so I moved to the middle of the road to overtake. As I passed the Range Rover the window started to come down and a few words were exchanged by both of us as I passed (I can't remember what, I don't think it was as bad as the first reaction though as I tend to calm down fairly quickly). I then kept up with the traffic for the rest of Sloane Ave, and then in to Draycott Place which is quite narrow for a two way road.

Draycott Place

[IMG] [/IMG]

Keeping up with the traffic in Draycott Place is easy as well, and as I approached the crossing at the end someone was waiting to cross so I stopped (I always do this, and stop at red lights as well believe it or not!), before it, and not on the crossing as some have suggested.

The junction

[IMG] [/IMG]

I was turning right at this junction to go down to Sloane Square, so as I moved off I was positioning myself for this.

At the junction I looked behind me and saw Jeremy Clarkson just pulling up behind me with his head and arm out of the window, holding his phone and shouting 'gotcha' and looking well smug with himself. He was driving, and there was nobody else in the car. I got off my bike and pushed it back to his car and pointed out that he was overtaking me going in to a hazard, and made me change course. He just kept shouting increduously 'you were four feet from the kerb, but you were four feet from the kerb, I'm a cyclist and you were four feet from the kerb!'.

After a couple of attempts to explain to him why I thought he was wrong I gave up as he just kept shouting, I then rode off. Throughout this exchange I stayed reasonably calm.

At no time did I abuse any other road user or pedestrian on my journey home.

What JC's pic on twitter doesn't show is how much traffic was about at the time. Before I stopped at the crossing the junction was busy, and the traffic was queing all the way down to Sloane Square. I was probably well on my way to Parliament Square by the time JC got through Sloane Square. The ambulance wasn't parked either, it was moving.

Thanks for your patience reading my longest ever post!

Oh my..

JC is a **** its official

The internet is great isn't it.

Hmmmm....

Ooops Photobucket binned it.

I'll try to fix the images for you 'itsme'

This will go *very* viral.

After a couple of attempts to explain to him why I thought he was wrong I gave up as he just kept shouting, I then rode off. Throughout this exchange I stayed reasonably calm.

can't believe you missed the chance to lump the fat bigot in the chops.

Has anyone sent a copy of Clarkson's photo to the police? Obviously using a hand held phone whilst driving so should be investigated.

Ah maybe deleted them.

Use imurg as it allow anonymous posting and unlimited bandwidth, if you upload them and email the links I'll edit your post.

I suspect this will not end well for Mr C.

Wow so Jeremy Clarkson is a tosser in real life too - who'd have thought it.

Cheers Drac, where's the email address?

In my profile.

[quote=itsme ]I was riding home from work (this is one of my regular routes) down Sloane Avenue in Chelsea towards Sloane Square. As I approached this island at the junction of Ixworth Street, a Range Rover over took me, because he had to veer left to avoid hitting the island I got pushed owards the kerb.
...
At the junction I looked behind me and saw Jeremy Clarkson just pulling up behind me with his head and arm out of the window, holding his phone and shouting 'gotcha' and looking well smug with himself. He was driving, and there was nobody else in the car.

Report him to the police for his illegal actions. We all know they won't actually do anything, but surely it is worth it in this case?

Actually I suspect the right newspaper might be interested.

Won't be the Mail though 😉

email sent. Thanks.

All fixed ta.

I'll stand by my earlier post, primary is entirely sensible down there.

Definitely not enough room to take secondary position in any of those streets, Primary is the only safe option there. I do wonder how much urban riding those who are slagging off the cyclist actually do?

...actually I'll correct my earlier post - the police might be able to take action as there is direct evidence of JC taking a photo whilst driving. Seriously, please do report him.

Thanks all for the support.

From past experience I know that Chelsea police aren't at all intrested in a cyclist's problems.

Its Clarkson - a fairly high profile TV presenter who specialises in glorifying driving stupidity. With his own pic condemning him they may well be interested, especially as its now on social media.

Hey itsme, quite apart from anything else: good work for pissing off Jeremy Clarkson, keep it up. 😉

[quote=muddydwarf ]Its Clarkson - a fairly high profile TV presenter who specialises in glorifying driving stupidity. With his own pic condemning him they may well be interested, especially as its now on social media.

+1 - surely some cop would be interested in taking a pop at him...

I normally don't mind Clarkson's rants and take them as good humour. But I'm suddenly feeling a strong dislike for the man after seeing this. Totally out of order.

RichPenny - Member
Entering into a debate with Clarkson is akin to entering a marrow into your anus; both senseless and painful.
POSTED 1 DAY AGO #

Probably true and funny as hell!

bearnecessities - Member
both senseless and painful
Oxymoron of the year?
POSTED 1 DAY AGO #

Quite possibly...!

David Taylforth. Can we have a little less of the aggression? It's a bit pointless - as are the assumptions on the size of other peoples genitalia.

I reported his tweet to the police a few days ago, and others on lfgss.com have done the same.

Additionally it has been passed on to the news team at road.cc

If handled well this could be an interesting news story.

I think a fitting punishment for Clarkson for this behaviour, would be to do Bikeability 1,2 and 3 training with schoolchildren and have it broadcast on Topgear.

The bloke thrives on publicity, he'll attempt to spin this. It would be like wrestling with a pig: you gets covered in shite and the pig enjoys the attention.

Ha, I said it would be an STWer.

itsme - I fully understand why you feel you need to keep your head down, but its a shame cyclists have to feel that way.

Might be worth dropping the London Cycling Campaign a line if you feel the need for an advocate while retaining your anonymity.

I wonder what The Times makes of this. The behaviour of Clarkson - one of their 'journos' - doesn't sit very well with their safer cycling campaign....

I wonder if over on piston heads there's a thread running "cycling can do no wronger" is being a moron

I read all 4 pages and whilst I admit I very rarely ride on the road just can't see why we all can't get along as opposed to nibbling at each groups ankles

He seems quite keen to portray himself in the best light over this one.

Jeremy Clarkson ?@JeremyClarkson 10 Jan

Ti be clear, the cyclist I tweeted about earlier rode constantly right in the middle of the lane and hurled abuse at anyone who overtook.

So the 'anyone' would just be him.
And the middle of the lane was the most approriate place for the cyclist to be.

What an idiot.

As a friend of Boris and DC, I suppose he thinks he's untouchable when it comes to bullying other road users.

Shame really - CCTV of the incident would make interesting viewing.
Can you obtain CCTV with a foi request?

I wonder if over on piston heads there's a thread running

If not there soon will be and you can predict with depressing accuracy how it will pan out. There's usually one weekly, started with the sole aim of giving morons a soapbox to have a general rant at cyclists. The level of stupidity is often mind boggling, especially assuming that these people probably consider themselves accomplished drivers.

Actually this incident with JC is a perfect case in point. Why try and overtake a vulnerable road user at a pinch point, can these people not plan more than 20 yards down the road? It would be nice if it was used as an example of how not to drive in an urban environment around cyclists, sadly I think we all know it wont be.

I read all 4 pages and whilst I admit I very rarely ride on the road just can't see why we all can't get along as opposed to nibbling at each groups ankles

Ride on the road a bit more and you might get a better idea.

mdavids - Member
Why try and overtake a vulnerable road user at a pinch point, can these people not plan more than 20 yards down the road?

It's pretty simple really - they don't care:
About our safety or the consequences of their actions.

As long as they can get away with it they will.