You are reading a single comment by @Jimmy_Fingers and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
@Jimmy_Fingers
I think it has a lot to do with being British and our penchant for interfering and pointing out other people's misdemeanours. Basically we're busy bodies. Check the 'bad cyclists' thread if you are in any doubt. In Bordeaux you did what the fuck you wanted and so did everyone else, which ended up a rather glorious mess of peds, cars, scooters, bikes and trams pretty much everywhere, but no one got mad. If someone got in your way you'd stop, wait and then move off with an air of gallic indifference. It was heaven: I RLJed (when safe), rode on pavements and ped areas through crowds of them and no-one batted an eyelid, no-one got mad and no-one went on the internet to complain about me. Back here I observe many of the rules of the road, albeit selectively, but I do try not to piss other road users off.
In contrast on the morning of flying out to Bordeaux for a couple of weeks of cycling I was cycling down a one way street in 'Nam with a series of bus stops on one side and a taxi rank on the other. The lane itself was pretty wide. There was buses there at the start so of course I cycled alongside teh right hand side of them. Then there were no buses but still stops and I continued to cycle along the yellow line. A white van skims me so I through an arm up (no rude gestures, just an arm in the air). The white van stops, I cycle past, he says something but I didn't really make it out. I stop at some lights, he's further back. Lights change I move off, he comes along side me, window down and starts to scream obscenities at me for being in the middle of the fucking road and how he's going to pucnh me in the fucking face. He's massive, the spit flecks joining the paint splatters he's covered in. His friend in the cab just sits there, staring at me. This goes on for a while. It stresses me out.
How come the Daily Mail don't write about that sort of shit? Perhaps if they did they'd realise why cyclists get aggressive occasionally, just like human beings all over the planet doing all sorts of things get aggressive occasionally.
Ever since then I make sure I have my chain and padlock in my bag, so if push come to shove I can shove back.
True story.