We can all dredge up stories of ghastly, dangerous, careless motorists - and cyclists who are the same or worse.
I now ride regularly with my 16-year-old son and as we wind down after a piece of work the chat sometimes turns to close passes and artics slamming the door too early after a pass. Then we just simmer down and keep pedalling.
It is horrid to be needlessly exposed to peril by the poor behaviour of another road user. Some members of this forum like to demonstrate with statistics how it is much more likely that a motorist will kill a cyclist than vice versa. I've assumed that since my age was in single figures and as a topic of thought it doesn't really have a place at the top table. I know that for some it does, but for me and many like me it is not a thing to get all 'rightfully indignant' about.
Some cyclists are ghastly, selfish or dangerous. Some are all of those. Similarly, some motorists tick those boxes, but most are courteous and skilled.
When I read pieces here and elsewhere that seem to have a slightly anti-cyclist or anti-motorist flavour, I cannot help but be reminded a little of the sort of objectionable anti-immigrant drivel one reads in some of the red tops. I'm not drawing a direct link, but there is something of the same odour about both.
Many of us who have cycled, driven different classes of road vehicle and ridden motorcycles over a number of decades find this divisive view of different types of road user unhelpful.
If you want to get cross about something, what about ivy roots? There are places where I've been digging, mattocking and ripping the roots for years and they still come back. Bastards! Heartless, rampaging, garden-ruining, tree-smothering, mortar cracking bastards!!!
Thank you.
