Attitudes to cycling in the office

I resent that I can’t go for a bike ride without being subject to agression from people driving. Is it really important to shave seconds of their journey time while putting cyclists at risk. I have no way of knowing if  close passes are due to ineptitude or are deliberate but I no longer feel safe riding on the road.

I also resent the continual what enormous powerful car threads on here, if people want to discuss cars the maybe a car website might be more apt.

I’d have kicked off at the time.

Yup… Causally calling them out and saying that such an action is a bit cunty….

Report them to hr and/or the old bill. You’ve got witnesses.

I might have taken things too far by setting up banking on the long ends. 😉

I also resent the continual what enormous powerful car threads on here

People are interested in all sorts of things. STW is particularly impressive in the wide spread of knowledge and expertise beyond riding bikes. It is perfectly possible to be a bit of a petrolhead and like powerful cars whilst also being a sensible driver and a cyclist.

I used to get my petrol fuelled kicks by rallying but I like to think that outside of competition I have always been a considerate driver.

Those people whose mantra appears to be “death to cyclists” are simply dickheads and probably always looking for some sort of confrontation in order to look hard.

Attitudes to cycling in the office

I have a personal rule that if I work past 8pm I cycle through the office (rather than push my bike). People generally seem okay with this. 🙂 (Obviously I realise this isn’t what the OP was talking about.)

I also resent the continual what enormous powerful car threads on here

It’s possible to like cars and also be nice to cyclists. That is the ultimate end goal really as cars aren’t going away so we really need enthusiastic car drivers to like cyclists

if people want to discuss cars the maybe a car website might be more apt

It turns out on Pistonheads, a car website, there are a lot drivers who are also cyclists, there’s even a active cycling sub forum. That’s a good thing as it brings better balance to discussion there. Likewise many cyclists are also drivers so it stands to reason people are going to discuss their interests here and this adds to STW too.

I don’t think anyone should be defined as a cyclist. It’s just a mode of transport. 

I am a cyclist.  I cycle purely for the activity of cycling and never use it to get from a to b (i.e. transport).  If I didn’t cycle I would probably run and then be a runner.

Not really sure why that matters but in answer to OP I don’t think attitudes have change for years, they have always be **** awful and something I have never understood.

Have to look back to 1950s for the last time bikes were not all hated as the ratio between bike riders and car drivers was much higher in favour of bike riders.

It is perfectly possible to be a bit of a petrolhead and like powerful cars whilst also being a sensible driver and a cyclist.

Absolutely this.

The all or nothing black or white attitudes are what continue to drive the dangerous division between road users, whether you are “anti bike” or “anti car”.

Just don’t be a dick.

Usual nonsense from people. I tend to ignore it. If I can be bothered I normally direct them to one of our internal policies that we’ve been implementing – forklifts need to renew their licence every three years, drivers should do the same. We segregate people and vehicles with physical barriers. Forklifts have to stop if people are nearby (halo). Safety posters saying look out for each other and it is everyone’s responsibility. We also have hierarchy of risk management ones up.

We did have to stop people riding in the warehouse at one point.

I found out 18months in our company president used to race bikes. And by used to race bikes I found out that meant professionally. He used to train with Lance and George as he was part of the Trek setup. I didn’t ask how thick his blood was.

I think you missed the point entirely kerley. True it may be a leisure pursuit for you not a mode of transport but the point is we all need to stop thinking about people as car drivers, mountain bikers, roadies. We also need to challenge people who try to define us in that way. I’m sure there’s more to you than your cycling. It’s just something we do for transport or fun or to keep fit.

If a driver is approaching a slower road user on a bicycle he/she is not approaching a cyclist it’s a person who may be a dad, mum, brother, sister, nurse, doctor, teacher. The mode of transport doesn’t define the person. They may then take more care passing a vulnerable road user.

Also why take it personally if someone expresses aggressive attitude towards people riding bikes. As someone who cycles regularly you should just challenge their views by pointing out that it could be their kids teacher or the a@e doctor who treated them last year on the bike.

I tend to just call people out on this sort of thing at the time these days. I’m done giving a **** what morons think.

TBH I’ve been doing this all my life, no point in seething ‘inside’ when you can get it ‘off your chest’ straight away 🙂

I think you missed the point entirely kerley.

Nope, I just don’t agree with you.

I am a cyclist.  I cycle purely for the activity of cycling and never use it to get from a to b (i.e. transport).  If I didn’t cycle I would probably run and then be a runner.

As much as I like cycling for fun and to go places I don’t really need to go… if I had to chose between a place/lifestyle where cycling for transport is the norm, safe and accepted by all…  but bikes were just a tool vs a place with a big recreational cycling scene where no one rides an everyday bike, I’d chose the former.

I’d rather have both of course and indeed, in the NL nearly everyone cycles for fun as well as transport… but I feel that everyday cycling is more important and that normalising non vehicular transport is key to making the place nicer, safer, healthier and generally better.

I feel that everyday cycling is more important and that normalising non vehicular transport is key to making the place nicer, safer, healthier and generally better

Well said.

Yes that’s the point.  We don’t need to group people into different categories which we end up being judgemental about.

I’m in a pretty pro-cycling team, but you still get the usual suspects with their edgy (borrowed from clarkson) lines. The trick is to deliver the standard rebuttals but with a smile and a little chuckle. After all it’s all ‘just banter’, right?

We all RLJ? Sure there was an email sent round, everyone who owns a bike agreed to ignore red lights.

You drive right at people on bikes? Play skittles with groups? Your wing mirrors don’t bend down do they? My cycling shoes have bits of metal on the bottom and it’s amazing how much it costs to fix the paint on a car door these days…

My favourite though was almost convincing one colleague that the bottles mounted on seat tubes are generally reserved for wee, and if he really valued his bimmer’s upholstery he wouldn’t roll down his passenger window to relay his opinions to lycra louts at traffic lights (after he’d spotted me on the way home the night before.

It’s the change of seasons, happens every year when there’s a few more bikes out and about, it becomes a hot topic for the hard of thinking to complain about, something else will distract them soon enough.

Just tell them they’re welcome to mow cyclists down if they really want but nothing bumps an insurance premium like a conviction and a ban and we’re all bristling with cameras these days, the bravado soon dies down…

I’m going to take the opportunity to remind everyone that if you feel strongly about this stuff, please get involved in your local AT campaign group – every little helps, no matter how peripheral.

Round here it’s Walk Ride GM, I’m sure there are similar groups in most places. L

All of this is quit relevant to a thread I started a few weeks back…. Unfortunately it was so controversial that it got shut down….

https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/cyclists-vs-drivers/

I keep thinking that it’d be good if drivers had to experience being a cyclist on a road – certainly anyone who’s convicted of a traffic offence involving a cyclist should be part of their sentence, like the speeding courses people do. Take them on a cycle on a variety of roads. I think / hope that the more there are cycling classes for kids in schools, and the more that kids ride bikes, maybe it’ll filter through to families and they’ll stop lumping “bloody cyclists” into a non-human herd to see as a nuisance / target. I’ve only recently started to ride on roads and it’s really scary sometimes – I really do think that the best possible thing would be if everyone sitting a driving test had the experience of other road users.

Same thing with any infrastructure – some of the council members & staff approving it should have to try using it themselves on foot, bike, wheeling, with a pram etc before it can be signed off as adequate for purpose.

But none of that will ever happen because cyclists and pedestrians are evidently waging “war on motorists”.

Same thing with any infrastructure – some of the council members & staff approving it should have to try using it themselves on foot, bike, wheeling, with a pram etc before it can be signed off as adequate for purpose.

There is much more stringent guidance and checking from Active Travel England now. Thankfully, everything (in England at least) is now going through them for a sense check so there is (at long **** last!) some standardised guidance and rules to play by – anything not compliant won’t get funded which sort of forces the council in question back to the drawing board.

Unfortunately of course, there’s still a shedload of wildly substandard historical nonsense out there, some of which keeps being incrementally “improved” because ripping it out and starting again would be too expensive and/or “war on motorist”.

Generally I meet a lot of incredulity that I cycle to work. Like you have to be an ultra endurance athlete.

The shtick is along the lines of ‘Six miles! Each way! You must be fit/mad/doing the Tour’.

When I’m working in another office on the other side of Scotland, I’m often asked if I cycled in. On one occasion, bored of this repeated question, I deadpanned ‘Yeah, I did…headed out at half five this morning to be in for 8:30’.

Riding to the pub quiz, all of 3 miles each way (with maybe 1.5 miles unlit road) is deemed utter insanity. And this is from guys who got me into MTB…

Confessing I did a 200k Audax ride one Monday morning was almost the cue for my committal papers to be requested by colleagues.

When I got the anti cyclist nonsense at work i would use two approaches.   Firstly the threatening ones would be countered with either ” that is what killed my frend”  or ” why do you think  its acceptable to attempt to kill cyclists” and the ignorant ones i would explain  the reasoning ie primary position

When I was working I managed to convert a few of my colleagues to cycle comuting, one of them wished he’d done it years ago as it improved his quality of life.

I am sure if some people tried cycling to work they might loose their negative attitudes to cyclists and they might even enjoy cycling.

I work for a popular P&A Distributor in the cycle trade. Main boss is an ex-1st Cat, his business partner is an ex-2nd Cat, I’m a (lapsed) 3rd Cat and one of our wheel builders is a 4th Cat. Nobody in the company wants to see one of their colleagues injured or killed, and there’s never any banter related to ‘nuisance’ cyclists. I like my job and the people I work with.

My work colleagues were happy to tolerate me arriving in a full skinsuit and parking my £5k TT bike in the office. I did have a run in with security about why I had dispensation not to lock this fabulous device to the ample bike racks.
No banter in our offices, we’re a very cycle friendly company with showers and free towels! My standard retort would be “your paunch is why I ride”. Someone shouted some nonsense from a Seat Cupra last week. I replied that he was the reason I drive a Porsche not a Seat (never have any issues from Porsche drivers 🤣).