I met an idiot today.

[jonny jeez]

Hi S.Giles,

Good post and I was interested to read this because I get the same verbal abuse from car drivers sometimes say about half a dozen times a week. I've been cycling for about 25 years and I don't know why but I don't seem to remember getting the same levels of abuse whilst out on the road when I cycled a great deal of miles in my younger days between school and friends houses which were spread out over a large distance.

On my daily commute, which is a 20 mile round trip, I pass a stretch of cycle path which is probably about half a mile long so makes up less than 10 per cent of my journey. This cycle path is covered in loose chippings, hedge trimmings, various other plant debris and it is not gritted when it's cold. In addition it is a cycle path, in what seems to be the only excuse for a cycle path in my area, i.e. what was previously the path anyway but it's had a cycle sign stuck up at the start of it and it's now dedicated as a mixed use pedestrian path for walking as well as being allocated for the use of cyclists. As well as being a cyclist I'm a parent with two young children and I'm accurately aware of the many types of people walking on the path such as parents with prams, toddlers walking with them, dog walkers, the elderly, the hard of hearing, partially sighted people the list could go on. Fingers crossed I like to consider that I'm a pretty considerate person and I believe that the last thing that pedestrians using the path need is a large number of cyclists sharing the path with them. Now I'm not saying that there aren't places, such as perhaps the Netherlands or Denmark for example, whereby planners have really thought about cycling infrastructure and have constructed dedicated cycle highways for cyclists only separated from both the road and pedestrians which maybe a very sensible idea to use. However that type of cycle path does not exist in many places in this country.

Therefore taking my cycle commute as an example I choose not to use the one bit of mixed use cycle & pedestrian path that makes up less than 10% of my journey distance and I choose to cycle on the road. This leads to an almost daily barrage of abuse from car drivers who seem to deem it acceptable to drive up right behind me honking their horn and sounding down their window to hurl verbal abuse at me. I like to think that I'm a considerate cyclist and it's a wide road meaning that I'm not blocking the road and the vast majority of road users drive straight on past me with no problem at all. However the is a persistent and intimidating minority who carry out the type of behaviour that you have described. On the same stretch of road I also witnessed the same verbal abuse that I've received dished out to many other cyclists who choose to use the road in the place and so it's not just me.

What!!!...half a dozen times a week...that's pretty much every day of the week!!

Surely there must be a common denominator to attract that much abuse?

 

[S.Giles]

Hello John.

I hope this isn't an attitude that is gaining currency and beginning to become a problem for cyclists. The last thing I need is aggressive motorists yelling at me on a regular basis for no good reason. Once these trends get going, they can gain momentum, become 'normal', and thus represent yet another thing that has to be endured in this delightful country of ours.

Steve

 

[Andrew_Culture]

If someone shouts 'use the cycle path', respond 'use the motorway'

Don't.

 

[S.Giles]

Car drivers are not a collective...they are just people.

I drive a car, I ride a bike, I walk, take taxis, take the train, ride a motorcycle...a scooter and even a white van...which tribe do I belong to?

I doubt that in a million years another cyclist would have ranted at me for not using the cycle path. There's an us-and-them tribal aspect to this sort of behaviour that is built into our DNA. Watch the news any night of the week if you want to see tribalism in action. Humans behave differently in groups than they do as individuals. Here are a few of the more common tribal labels from the present and past that have caused problems to various degrees:

Christian/Muslim
Male/Female
Black/White
Mod/Rocker
Cyclist/Motorist
Team 'A' supporter/Team 'B' supporter
Israeli/Palestinian

Etc, etc, etc, ad nauseum

It's all just different manifestations of the same phenomenon.

Granted, as civilised individuals we should be able to rise above it, but alas, that is not always the case.

Steve

 

[Alan Frame]

Snot tribal. She probably had a go at a few drivers that day as well.
She is either just an idiot or had just had really bad day
Car drivers are not a collective...they are just people.

I drive a car, I ride a bike, I walk, take taxis, take the train, ride a motorcycle...a scooter and even a white van...which tribe do I belong to?

I think that in general people these days are far more angry, impatient and far less considerate than they used to be, maybe it's a sign of the times.

 

[BlackPanther]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zp4_hBKaiaU


Had the same thing a while back. Just listen to the car drivers scream at the end......I suspect he's mentally unhinged!

 

[steveindenmark]

I am so lucky that I dont get any of this crap. You should all book a holiday for 2 weeks in Denmark and bring your bikes. You would think you have come to another planet.

Either that or you will find out that it is you that is the antagonising git on the road.

 

[J1780]

I've found there is a terrible attitude towards cyclists in the last few years I would'nt even talk of the 'old days' there's just no comparison and the old days weren't that long ago either. Just smile and wave at them because it annoys them more than anything else and you won't change the way these ignorant clowns think any time soon. At the moment cyclists are the target but it'll change some time. In any case they best get used to us 'taking up their roads and not paying any ROAD tax' because cycling is on the agenda

 

[Drago]

If someone shouts 'use the cycle path', respond 'use the motorway'

I was thinking exactly the same! It's like the old "you don't pay no road tax" malarkey - I usually respond (if I bother responindg at all) "you only pay low rate income tax. So what?"

 

[Archie_tect]

I think that in general people these days are far more angry, impatient and far less considerate than they used to be, maybe it's a sign of the times.

... Sadly true... on here too.

 

[winjim]

My commute takes me down a stretch of dual carriageway, alongside which is a shared use cycle path. I've never had any abuse, the drivers give me plenty of room and everyone's just lovely. I've never been told to get on the cycle path and the only thing I've had yelled at me out of a car window is "25mph!" along with a grin and a thumbs up when I was particularly giving it the beans one morning.

This is extremely boring but I post it merely in the interest of balance.

 

[John_S]

Hi winjim,

That's good to hear that this sort of behaviour doesn't happen everywhere and I'm glad that it doesn't effect you where you cycle.

I'm pretty certain that it's nothing that I'm doing on the road as a cyclist because I've been cycling 25 years and consider myself to be fairly experienced and this behaviour of people honking at me and verbally abusing me does not happen anywhere else. It only happens on a specific piece of road which runs alongside a stretch of mixed use pedestrian and cycle path.

One thing that makes me think that I'm not doing anything wrong is that I've seen the honking, aggressive driving and verbal abuse hurled at other cyclists who use the road here whether they're cycling on their own or in groups. Therefore in this instance it seems to be specifically that some motorists take objection to cyclists being on the road next to where there is a mixed use pedestrian and cycle path. Experiencing this sort of behaviour can sometimes be a daily occurrence both on my commute to and back home from work whereas at other times I have a blissful couple of days without experiencing it.

It is by no means every driver who has this attitude and it's a perfectly wide bit of road and the vast majority of drivers pass without any issues whatsoever.

I understand the points about humans and tribalism etc. but my comments are not meant to be an anti car driver message it's more an anti idiot point. I am a cyclist, I drive a car when I need to and I also walk a lot when it makes sense to do so. I'm aware that over the general population there's a certain percentage of idiots and they are idiots when cycling, driving a motor vehicle of any sort or for example being a pedestrian and stepping out into the traffic without looking.

It's just a shame that there is a persistent minority, in my humble opinion and experience on the road, who seem to vehemently object to cyclists using the road when there is the option of a mixed use pedestrian/ cycle path and they're happy to vent their opinion by performing aggressive and intimidateing actions directed towards cyclists who use the road.

I do try to let it be water of a ducks back but sometimes when it's been several days in a row both on the way to and way home from work it does get to you.

John

 

[S.Giles]

A complicating factor in the situation I described in the OP is that I was about (but hadn't yet started) to turn right at the traffic lights. The cycle path was situated several yards away from the roadside on the other side of a grass verge, so had I been using it I would have had to dismount, and cross the road as a pedestrian (or worse, negotiate the pedestrian crossing on the bike - something that makes me cringe every time I see others doing it). This sort of half cyclist/half pedestrian approach to cycling isn't what I learned to do 40+ years ago and I'm not about to start now.

Of course, that stupid woman didn't know or care about any of this.

 

[HLaB]

I'm expecting the 'Get on the cycle path' comment on one of my commuting diversions; this path (actually a shared footway) is actually pretty wide and does go from A to B and thus its used quite regularly by other cyclists but I want to go from A to B quickly and safely which isn't possible with a path that stops for a few side roads and is up and down constantly for driveways.

 

[Mugshot]

I'm expecting the 'Get on the cycle path' comment on one of my commuting diversions; this path (actually a shared footway) is actually pretty wide and does go from A to B and thus its used quite regularly by other cyclists but I want to go from A to B quickly and safely which isn't possible with a path that stops for a few side roads and is up and down constantly for driveways.

Oooohh, that does annoy me, the way the priority is given to side roads and drives, makes me mad it does. I have a section which I use on a fairly regular basis all depending on mood that day, it's about a mile long and pretty good condition very rarely has peds on it but there is a regular stream of cyclists through the day. There is ONE point where the cycle/shared use path is crossed, it's a driveway to a stables, the amount of traffic that uses it must be minimal, in the last three years I've seen one car coming out of it. Yet it's the cycle/shared path which has got those nice broken white lines painted on it.
It really winds me up!