'Bike rage' highlighted as police target bad cyclists

[Alien8]

I particularly liked the bit:

"And anti-social cyclists flouting the law will get a £30 fine - and free bike lessons or new lights."

Cambridge News 26 October.

'Bike rage' highlighted as police target bad cyclists.

A CYCLIST smashed into a car, carrying a mother and child, in a terrifying bike rage attack in Cambridge.

The rider deliberately rammed his bike into the car, in Garlic Row, at the junction with Newmarket Road, causing dents and scratches.

The attack has been highlighted as, tonight, police take to the city streets to crack down on anti-social cyclists.

Officers will be targeting cyclists who flout traffic laws, including riding without lights, using pavements and running traffic lights.

Speaking about the bike rage attack, Sgt Gordon Morganthaler said: "We will not tolerate people acting that way whether cyclists or motorists.

"There are collisions but that is no excuse for causing damage or attacking people.

"They need to be calm and aware of what is going on around them.

Getting angry can lead to serious consequences."

And anti-social cyclists flouting the law will get a £30 fine - and free bike lessons or new lights.

Officers will be out in force for a week-long crackdown to coincide with the end of daylight saving time. Last year, hundreds of fines were issued.

Joining officers on Wednesday night, will be a film crew from ITV1's Tonight show who are shooting a documentary on bike rage.

Police have appealed for information about the Garlic Row bike rage attack.

A Cambridgeshire police spokeswoman said: "A mother was in a car with her child driving towards the junction of Garlic Row and Newmarket Road.

"She was going to turn left but had to stop to give way to other cars when she heard a loud bang.

"A cyclist had deliberately rammed his bike into her car causing damage. She looked in her mirror and saw the cyclist speed off back along Garlic Row. He was angry because he had to stop and cycle around her car."

The cyclist is described as in his late 20s to 30 years old with brownish ginger hair, unshaven and of a slim build. He was wearing a long green parka coat and was riding a road bike. The incident happened at 1.10pm on Wednesday.

 

[Origamist]

The cyclist is described as in his late 20s to 30 years old with brownish ginger hair, unshaven and of a slim build. He was wearing a long green parka coat and was riding a road bike. The incident happened at 1.10pm on Wednesday.

Sounds like Cab or Crankarm.

 

[CotterPin]

"A cyclist had deliberately rammed his bike into her car causing damage. She looked in her mirror and saw the cyclist speed off back along Garlic Row. He was angry because he had to stop and cycle around her car."

How do they know it was deliberate? The only source of information appears to be from driver as the cyclist had gone. An equally plausible situation is that the driver stopped suddenly and the cyclist could not stop in time. Which also puts the cyclist at fault but does not imply a deliberate act.

 

[lit]

They don't, just another typical car driver wanting to be seen as a victim.

 

[Bman]

"A cyclist had deliberately rammed his bike into her car causing damage. She looked in her mirror and saw the cyclist speed off back along Garlic Row. He was angry because he had to stop and cycle around her car."

I'm sorry, but how do they know it was intentional!?

What kind of nutter deliberately rides into a car!? Surely that would hurt!?

And what about the bike!

 

[thomas]

How do I claim my free bike lights

 

[BentMikey]

Sounds like a left hook to me. No idea of course, I'm just reading into the driver's story as reported.

 

[Twenty Inch]

My thoughts exactly, Mikey.

Wonderful how the coppers have swung into action to highlight anti-social cycling though, isn't it? I wonder whether her husband is in the same Lodge as the Chief Constable?

 

[XmisterIS]

Sounds like another case of ...

"Let's really jazz this incident up and report it in the most sensational way possible, even though to do so may make the article incredibly economical with the truth!!!!!"

 

[2Loose]

If he was angry because he needed to go around the car, why did he turn around and go back the way he came? Non-nonsensical story.

I am reading a left hook here too or 'just' an intoxicated cyclist. I can't fathom the 'angry' reason from the story

 

[CotterPin]

'Ang on a minute - this is more confusing. The cyclist hit the back of the car, went around the front of it, and then turned around and headed off in the other direction???? Something is deeply weird here.

 

[rh100]

How do I claim my free bike lights

If they're worth more than the £30 fine, you're in profit

 

[thomas]

If they're worth more than the £30 fine, you're in profit

Do they come with the recipt?

 

[Cubist]

If they're worth more than the £30 fine, you're in profit

More likely to be yet another mountain of those f*cking woeful RAC green ones you see in Wilkinsons for less than a fiver!

 

[Cubist]

Here's an idea for a new thread: It's "fill in the blanks to suit your perspective/argument"

What you do is hunt down a news story that contains virtually no information, but is capable of stirring near-hysterical conjecture. This one is an absolute peach, because not only is it a one-off reported by a woman driver, probably distracted by her child,(see where I'm going with this one!) but contains references to an act which must have been a made up one (anti-social cycling, it must be on the increase, Cambridge police have dedicated a whole unit to eradicating it!), and you fill in your own gaps.

So, here's my interpretation of the full event. I wasn't there, so I will have to use the word "probably" a lot:

A woman driver who had just been having a really bad day, was driving along in a complete daydream. She wanted to turn left, but wasn't quite sure where. She suddenly saw her turning and turned, rearranging the now famous "mirror, signal, manoeuvre" mantra only a little, waiting until she heard the collision before she looked in the mirror for example. Such was her confusion that she was actually unable to tell where the cyclist had come from. She was pretty sure she knows where he went afterwards though. A bit. And can someone please explain to her what a contra-flow cycle lane is?

Or of course the whole truth emerges. Bent Mikey's unshaven cousin in his twelfth year of postgraduate shenanigins at Cambridge , in a fit of pique, decided to avenge every close overtake ever committed against him, his cousin, or any other fellow cyclist, by reinforcing his old fixie, fitting his QR "ramming wheel" by Alexrims, and cycling at the next defenceless female driver, making damn sure she understood why he had done it. The video will be uploaded onto Youtube next week, as soon as he has edited out the bloodcurdling "Take that in the name of all heroic cyclists everywhere, yer c@nt"