Why Are Cyclists So Hated...

Robert Elms invented being interested in things.

http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/uk/robert-elms-how-i-got-on-my-bike-448392.html

Same Robert Elms?

..."So I did a bit of research and ended up in Roberts Cycles, an old-school British bike builders, whose workshop looked just like Pegglies all those years ago. I ordered a handsome, hand-built, bespoke steel-framed machine in Italian blue with all the requisite shiny bits. This was simultaneously a mid-life crisis bike, and a thwarted childhood dream."

Ah! Now that is why I found myself in Croydon a couple of weeks ago.

I see motorists doing exactly the same on a daily basis. The difference being they are driving a ton of metal.

Back in the good ol' days that would've been true, unfortunately now it's two tons of metal, as a result of all of the "safety features".

Since I have been cycling in London ( about 15 years ) I have become the most chilled out driver imaginable. I let everyone go, I drive really slowly down backroads, I very rarely get stressed or shout at people. The complete opposite to how I am on my bike in fact.
This is very different from how I was when I started driving, which was pretty twatish and more akin to most of the cocks behind the wheel

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[B]RPM:** *I've met him and he's no more of a cunt than any of you lot *

[/B]
+1, Elms is a wanker, not a cunt.

What gets on my tits is that motorist claim to hate cyclists because cyclists don't follow the rules of the road.

So I make sure I signal ... and people drive around you so you can't turn right. What the hell am I supposed to do.

No means all Londers are cockney...that's why the word posh exists. AFAIK mockney means someone who originally spoke well (meaning BBC, received pronunciation, like the queen, etc) and started putting on a cockney accent. I have no idea if he actually did that, and I he seems ok to me. FWIW I don't see why he's a wanker either.

check the two responses to this article. some pure anti-cyclist anger.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23645630-details/Cyclists+call+for+car-free+Sundays+in+the+capital/article.do

Quote "I pay tax to use the roads, cyclists pay nothing, yet seem to think they have more rights than anyone."

This unoriginal comment always winds me up.

A) Road tax is not high enough to cover the actual costs involved in maintaining/building roads (I might have got this from C+, could be BS).
B) I own a taxed car anyway, which I simply choose to use as little as possible. Can'nt ever remember getting a refund for non-driven miles.

There are rules for cyclists?

Blimey

Why Is Elms a cunt? As far as I'm aware he's very pro cycling. Apart from being a bit of a mockney, I can't see what he's done wrong?

I'm old enough to remember the 80s, when he was one of the Blitz kids and used to write for a magazine called New Sounds, New Styles: a very pale imitation of the Face and I-D. His journalism is fucking dire, he just sports the same old "look at me I grew up on a Council Estate, aren't I great, isn't London great, aren't Londoners great" bullshit.
There is zero substance to anything he does, it's all about superficial style.

Maybe we should fine tune the debate: "male drivers hate male cyclists"?

I had this exact debate with a non-cycling motorist friend yesterday. I think there's two levels on which drivers hate cyclists, the conscious level and the unconscious:

Conscious eg they slow drivers down when there isn't enough space for a car and a bike to pass; cyclists weave in and out of traffic unpredictably; it's irritating to see cyclists flout laws that motorists can't for fear of being nicked / losing their licence.

Unconscious eg driving behind a cyclist is much more stressful than driving behind a car because you could kill them (which leads to the mindset of 'it's so dangerous you shouldn't be on the roads'); anything that slows down a driver on his journey is regarded as breaking some fundamental rule of motor transport (which leads to the mindset of 'roads are for cars'); knowing that a cyclist is faster and fitter and less polluting that you in your gaz-guzzling metal box is guilt-inducing.

Maybe we should fine tune the debate: "male drivers hate male cyclists"?

ooooh, interesting point, you've gotta say Vee Vee's got an interesting point.....

After having the living daylights scared out of me on several occasions by cyclists who think it is OK to ride very fast on the pavement (Newsflash: IT IS NOT) and not even ringing their bell to give advanced notice of their approach, I had come to the conclusion that many of them are inherently selfish, if not actually demonic. The request to close roads to cars simply confirms this. Needless to say I do not think it should be allowed and I think the bikers should be laughed off the face of the planet for having the temerity to suggest such a breathtakingly ludicrous idea

WTF? That's even better than being called a Nazi.

Someone should ask the guy that said he pays taxes to use the roads what he thinks his taxes go on and why he is paying more and more tax every year as well as congestion charges in the city. He probably thinks that all the money goes on re surfacing the roads so he can drive his Chelsea tractor along with out hitting a dent in the road causing him to drop his mobile. Cyclists have little or no effect on damage to the roads and has he missed the fact that the city that was designed and built around the use of horses, cart and single decker trains which don't congest the city or produce harmful green house gasses. Obviously there is a need for cars all the time in the city but people should realise how much nicer the city would be if 10 per cent of the people needlessly driving cars through the city took to a bike or even public transport. This would also reduce road tax cost and congestion charges. And after a couple of weeks of cycling, this idiot might be able to see his penis without a mirror as well!
I drive a car and I cycle. Never drive in the city though, I don’t have the patience.

Maybe we should fine tune the debate: "male drivers hate male cyclists"?

Or all males hate all other males they don't know =P

But you're always going to get cyclists who hate drivers/cars and drivers who hate cyclists.

There's probably no solution, so stop worrying and get on with your life.

I drive a car and I cycle. Never drive in the city though, I don’t have the patience.

me too, I never drive in the city, as I don't have the time

Maybe we should fine tune the debate: "male drivers hate male cyclists"?

Are you or other female cyclists treated differently?

We've all got it pretty good in london you know. Drivers here actually aren't too bad when you compare them to some other places. At least they (drivers) are used to seeing cyclists on the road.

I'm from Perth, Western Australia and the flak cyclist get over there is down right shameful. People yell abuse, throw beer bottles and McD's drinks at you, don't see you and pull out on you on a regular basis and if they knock you off your bike you'll "be firmly in the wrong" as far as they are concerned. I stayed firmly on the tracks and trails back home because of this as i'd heard far too many stories and seen first hand my old man (now in his mid sixties and still competitive mind) get knocked off on a regular basis - about 6 years back he got knocked off bad - someone tried to overtake him and then turn left!! Over the bonnet and a somersault between 2 signposts later he gets a cracked hip, a mangled bike and no sympathy from the driver at fault. He now only rides on the street rarely, as do his cycling mates and does more organised racing and track events.

Seriously, london is sweet for cycling - mainly because there are so many of us about - we can't be ignored.

where in perth, hoonz?

..."So I did a bit of research and ended up in Roberts Cycles, an old-school British bike builders, whose workshop looked just like Pegglies all those years ago. I ordered a handsome, hand-built, bespoke steel-framed machine in Italian blue with all the requisite shiny bits. This was simultaneously a mid-life crisis bike, and a thwarted childhood dream."

Ah! Now that is why I found myself in Croydon a couple of weeks ago.

He also name drops Rapha in the same article.

where in perth, hoonz?

Greenmount - the foothills just past Midland- hbu?

east fremantle

I reckon London cyclists are hated 'cos most of them are bloody aussies. ;p

Fair point. You could be on to something

Hoonz
BRM
Hippy
Murtle

; )