Friends with anti-cyclist bigotry

Deepings Free Discussion

Is this Deepings as in South Lincs?

Yup.

It’s a flat small world.

That Facebook page – yep, almost word for word the rants ive had said to my face. Along with demanding that I agree that cyclists should be forced to use cycle lanes where they exist*

Its the mental gymnastics required to think that the cyclist you are ranting at will at any point agree with them that their views are rational that baffles me.

*I agreed, by pointing out all lanes are already cycle lanes 😆

MoreCashThanDash – Member
It’s a flat small world.

It is. I would imagine you’re more likely to bump into the PMBR riders than me though, as I’m the other side of Peterborough and ride Wakerley mainly locally. Did teach in Deeping until July though…

Some people that I once worked with once said ‘aren’t you supposed to grow out of that’?

And ‘aren’t you abit old to be still riding a bike’?

Ive also heard ‘cyclists are such angry people’.

The sort of people that say that aren’t worth challenging. So I just smile. Life’s for living not being sedatory long before you’ve got no choice.

Every time I read one of these I keep expecting MV to show up.

One of the lines in the Facebook responses is solid gold:

“Let us pass, we have dogs in the car”

Surely this is a never ending argument, car drivers think cyclists are only there to hold them up and cyclists think car drivers are aggressive.

We’ve all seen things that boil our piss from either side whether it be the driver leaving a fag paper gap or the Sunday middle management peloton taking up an entire road. I think we just need to all agree that people are dicks and let them get on with it

Colournoise – I left Deeping in 95 after 20 years in the flatlands. Happy memories of growing up there though.

MoreCashThanDash – Member

Colournoise – I left Deeping in 95 after 20 years in the flatlands. Happy memories of growing up there though.

I moved there around 2004 or so. It’s a bit flat, but apart from that it’s alright.
My Wife grew up in the area; Glinton & Northborough……

We’ve all seen things that boil our piss from either side whether it be the driver leaving a fag paper gap or the Sunday middle management peloton taking up an entire road.

That’s a false equivalence.

The close pass is aggressive, territorial and dangerous driving, and how people are killed.

The two-abreast-group-ride (ignoring your redundant stereotyping of the participants) is 1. good cycling and 2. harms no-one. Please educate yourself

I think we just need to all agree that people are dicks

Nothing dickish about riding in a group.

Sunday middle management peloton taking up an entire road

this? On a bike forum..? 😐

I think we just need to all agree that people are dicks and let them us get on with it

Makes more sense now that if people are dicks then you should include yourself. 😛

That’s a false equivalence.

The close pass is aggressive, territorial and dangerous driving, and how people are killed.

The two-abreast-group-ride (ignoring your redundant stereotyping of the participants) is 1. good cycling and 2. harms no-one. Please educate yourself

Well said.

Point and laugh at their fat belly.

You’ve not met anyone off here then?

It’s all portly IT managers 8)

Theres plenty dickish when cyclists take primary and refuse to move into the ~100m long layby to let the queue of traffic by. Plenty like that round here.

But I’m forgetting myself’ cyclists never do anything selfish, do they?

Let’s understand ‘eachover’ and all get along?

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/163495

There’s a hint of throbberdom in some of the posts in this thread.

Having had numerous punishment passes and on one occasion being threatened with a metal pole for having the audacity of riding my bike on a road, which I’ve helped pay for I take a very dim view of the opinions expressed by people who take a blanket view of cyclists.

That petition is somewhat special though.

A lot of people are dicks yes. Especially when there’s a label they can apply to people.

Seems like some drivers get angry when some cyclists are dicks and they then hate all cyclists. However I’d like to point out that the overwhelming majority of drivers (at least around my way) are decent and give space not aggro.

However I’d like to point out that the overwhelming majority of drivers (at least around my way) are decent and give space not aggro

Heck yes. The vast majority of drivers are absolutely fine and courteous. As with all walks of life, a tiny number of knobbers can ruin it for the rest.

Mr Ely has a facebook page where he’s thanking the people what have signed the petition. Anyone know what Ewhurst is like?

I moved there around 2004 or so. It’s a bit flat, but apart from that it’s alright.
My Wife grew up in the area; Glinton & Northborough….

We won’t have met then 😉

And a friend is a business owner (of a bus company) and often posts on Facebook about his hate of cyclists and reposts some pretty nasty stuff about it. Not surprisingly, around our way it is his company’s buses that show no respect for cyclists whereas others generally do.

A bit of research to find out when his ‘o’ licence is up for renewal and a letter writing campaign with reference to the FaceBook posts and the problem will go away. The objection should be along the lines of a ‘lack of professional competence’ by the management team.

As we were always told ‘play nicely or you won’t get to play’ when we were younger.

“Let us pass, we have dogs in the car”

WTAF?

car drivers think cyclists are only there to hold them up and cyclists think car drivers are aggressive.

Well I can’t speak for all cyclists (coz, you know, we’re not a homogeneous group) but I’d say a lot of drivers are careless and/or clueless with a few actual aggressive ones in there. There’s certainly a lot of evidence to that fact (not just helmet cams) whereas about 10 seconds thought would show that cyclists don’t actually hold drivers up increase journey time by any meaningful amount (may be different in london, I dunno)

may be different in london, I dunno

Even less likely in city centres – how many times do city cyclists get passed unnecessarily by vehicles only to catch up with them in traffic / at junctions a few seconds later? (lots of times IME)

Donk, was with you till here:

whereas about 10 seconds thought would show that cyclists don’t actually hold drivers up increase journey time by any meaningful amount (may be different in london, I dunno)

This is on a roughly five mile stretch of road with literally no safe passing places except where said layby occurs. Of course if you meet a line of traffic in the other direction then youre screwed. At 15 miles an hour, depending on the time of day, thats a 4x increase on your journey time along those 5 miles. All for a lack of courtesy by someone who would be in no way inconvenienced by pulling over as they dont even need to slow down.

I think people forget sometimes that when you share something compromise works both ways.

@squirrelking “five mile stretch of road with literally no safe passing places” Could you link to a Google map of the road in question.

Sure,https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@55.8155364,-4.8853697,3a,75y,12.84h,62.05t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sKBjMunbVjAkbh8ltphtGWQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1

Bear in mind though that the google car camera is about 10′ up and can’t see the blind bends and dips as well as the driver. It’s also generally much busier than when the shots were taken, being a trunk road.

five mile stretch of road with literally no safe passing places

It’s just… a road. There are straight bits. And bendy bits. It’s a two-way road like any other.

Of course if you meet a line of traffic in the other direction then youre screwed.

Ah. Then why not rant at the fact that the road is too busy with cars? You could just as equally rant that those other-direction-driving-bastards are holding you up, and should pull over to let you through. Because you’re special, for some reason.

All for a lack of courtesy

Only if you think that “courtesy” means slower road users getting out of the way of the Proper People in their cars.

On the general point, whether I’m in the car, on foot or on my bike, it is invariably not cyclists that are holding me up. It’s queue after queue after queue of cars, all sitting there, stuck. So when you are stuck in a queue of motorised vehicles, do you rant and rave at the drivers in front of you for not pulling over and letting you through?

Was that the right link? It took me right to a big long straight bit where you could overtake a bus. Actually, you could overtake a line of buses.

If you merely mean that you can’t overtake when there is actually something coming the other way, why don’t you let us know the next time you actually drive 5 miles behind a cyclist without being able to overtake them? I’m betting it won’t be in your lifetime.

I think people forget sometimes that when you share something compromise works both ways.

This.

I go to single file when cars can’t pass. On country lanes if I’m climbing I pull over and let cars pass, with a wave. I’ll pull over and let cars pass if I’m driving slowly in a car for some reason too. If I’m strolling down the street and someone walks up behind me in a hurry, I’ll get out of their way. I’l do it voluntarily though and I won’t be bullied into doing it if it’s not appropriate or I don’t want to for some other reason.

It’s cos I’m nice.

If I’m riding along and holding up a queue of traffic that can’t get by me, then I’ll happily pull over into lay-by/field entrance etc and give them a chance to get past. As per the Highway Code.

If I’m riding along and holding up an entitled prick who thinks he has a right to get past me because he is in a car, the “courtesy switch” in my brain is unlikely to operate correctly.

Edit: beaten to it by that nice molgrips

Like mol and mctd I do the same.

Did 1100 miles on lejog and didn’t have one nasty encounter. Plenty of support – people chatting at traffic lights and chearing us on when we told them where we were going. All very odd, but pleasant.

We met a couple of riders at jog. They told us about the constant abuse and swearing every hour of the day of their 3 week trip.

Ride like an arsehole and you get treated like one.

Ride like an arsehole and you get treated like one.

That’s it.

Don’t underestimate the power of eye contact either.

Don’t underestimate the power of eye contact either.

Don’t overestimate it either. If I had a pound for every time someone’s looked me straight in the eye and then pulled out on me anyway, whether I’m on a cycle, motorbike or in a car, I could afford to pay my own hospital bills.

Ride like an arsehole and you get treated like one.

I can’t subscribe to this “wild west” view of road culture. There is never any excuse for abuse or aggression.

We met a couple of riders at jog. They told us about the constant abuse and swearing every hour of the day of their 3 week trip.

You’ve concluded that these people received abuse and aggression because they were riding like “arseholes”. Maybe they were, maybe they weren’t. You need to define terms. Taking primary when the road narrows is not “riding like an arsehole.” Riding two abreast is not “riding like an arsehole”. Riding out of the door zone is not “riding like an arsehole”. Filtering, to the left or to the right, is not “riding like an arsehole”.

All of these behaviours are perfectly good cycling, and in some cases recommended safe cycling, yet will often cause a cyclist to be abused and intimidated, due to a “might is right” culture of entitlement on the roads, which is evident even on this very thread.

If I’m riding along and holding up a queue of traffic that can’t get by me, then I’ll happily pull over into lay-by/field entrance etc and give them a chance to get past. As per the Highway Code.

If I’m riding along and holding up an entitled prick who thinks he has a right to get past me because he is in a car, the “courtesy switch” in my brain is unlikely to operate correctly.

This^^

Ride like an arsehole and you get treated like one.

The implication of that is that people who are the victims of (other) arseholes deserved it.

I’ve told this before, but I was riding along a deserted suburban road at 7am one morning when I heard a car horn beep behind me. There was a car quite a way back catching up with me. I ignored the horn, no reason the car couldn’t pass me safely, I wasn’t in primary or swerving or two abreast.

But he slowed down a bit, waited until we were on the up ramp of a humpback bridge and THEN started to overtake, very close. Then a car came the other way so he veered left, clipped me, finished the overtake, then pulled over and started getting out of his car. I passed him, he jumped back in, so I hopped on the pavement and stopped, not wanting to be run down by a lunatic. He pulled up, jumped out, ran towards me and gave me half a dozen punches to the head and face while I lay tangled up in my bike on the floor. All because he thought I’d kicked his car when he veered left and hit me. He went to the police station and said “I saw a cyclist in front of me, I beeped my horn but he didn’t get out of the way so I punched him”. They asked him to write a letter saying “I’m sorry we bumped in to each other last week” and that was the end of the matter. I’m sure the info sheet the PC brought into the interview room said he’s got a shotgun licence. 😯

Short of hopping onto the pavement every time a car approaches, I don’t see how I could have avoided that.

Never shout at a car. You instantly look in the wrong.