Do You Find That Most People Hate Cyclists?

[Scaleyback]

Motorists are generally pretty good here in Richmondshire, North Yorkshire. There is a strong cycling culture here and being a huge rural county there is less traffic volume on the roads at any given time. There are always idiots of course. I find the odd female who while driving at sensible speeds still overtake me when traffic is coming the other way, ergo they come far to close. This isn't wilful (I believe) but they need educating. I have occasionally attempted this when catching them up at traffic lights etc. I always start off respectfully and to date I have never has an adverse reaction from a female driver. I think the occasional male 'idiot' tends to be in a hurry and impatient, these are the dangerous ones. Call me a coward, but I think twice before remonstrating with male drivers at the lights etc at 74, I'm not a 'scrapper' these days.

 

[gavroche]

Here in North Wales, I have very little trouble with motorists. We all seem to get on . Every now and again maybe, I encounter an idiot but this is not the rule.

 

[johnnyb47]

I think a lot of non cyclist motorists look upon cyclists as eccentric green tree huggers, that only serve one purpose as to holding them up whilst they get on with their daily driving habits. Granted not all motorists can be tarnished with the same brush, but it only takes a small minority of motorists to give a cyclist a dim view of motorists.
Me personally I'm a keen cyclist, but I also cover a lot of miles in my gas guzzling car. It's particularly hard not to own a car where i live, as public transport is near non existent and if you need or want to travel further afield, it's almost impossible to do without a car. I must admit, i do like owning a car and spend many hours maintaining it, as it's virtually a classic now and enjoy getting my hands dirty maintaining it. People at work think I'm absolutely bonkers when i tell them of my 40/50 mile ride on my bike. They just don't "get it" when I try to explain about the freedom and enjoyment that cycling has to offer. There views are that im slightly eccentric/weird to actually enjoying spending a Sunday afternoon exploring the countryside on a bike. These people though, generally are people i see as people living in the rat race. There paying through there noses for cars they can hardly afford on hp and are slaves to their jobs to finance them, and see cyclists as freeloaders to the county as in not having to pay VED or fuel costs. Most motorists are very forgiving when i know I may be holding them up, but i find non cyclist people i talk to just see me as some sort of weirdo eccentric who are out there to cause pain and misery to them when there out in there iron chariots. I try to use my car as little as possible nowadays, as i find fuel extortionatly priced and the good old days of open roads are long gone.

 

[marshmella]

A colleague of mine stated that he hated "Bikers" cos they get in the way and hold everyone up They are supposed to ride in single file. He meant cyclists. He is normally a decent if somewhat opinionated chap so i warned him not to continue with his mini rant as ive heard all the arguments over the years here on CC and can throw it all back at him. I didn't hear anymore.

 

[aj101]

When I encounter this sort of rhetoric, I am careful not to use the word "cyclists" but instead replace it with "people using bicycles" and "to travel around/to get to work/to go to school" etc- its a subtle change but it reframes it somewhat in the other person's mind.

 

[richmace]

I live in Bristol, UK, and I my area is fairly bike friendly. We have a large number of cycle routes and paths, which I use to commute to work.

In that regard, cycling is actively encouraged here.

So, I find that if I stick to the cycle routes then all is well.

I do find, though, that I am considered an inconvenience if I have to use narrow roads with no cycling provision.

We have really bad cycle areas painted on some of our city road, which make the drivable area narrower. These kinds of roads cause conflict between car and bike. I try to pick routes that use cycle friendly paths.

New roads are generally cycle friendly, so things are getting better