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lynx
Muc-ed-off
Any reputable studies on when the hatred against cyclists started in the UK? Seems like an interesting and impactful thing for a sociologist to pick apart.
My hunch is that it’s an artefact of late 19th / early 20th century classism, when workers increased their presence on the roads through the use of the recently invented bicycle, which must have pissed off the horse/carrriage/car-using upper class to no end. Fast forward to mass manufacture and sale of automobiles by the wealthy to the UK Everyman, and the bicycle must’ve been additionally loathed.
With the exceptions perhaps of Oxford and Cambridge, I reckon hate of cyclists correlates pretty well with Tory voting tendencies on a map.