jayonabike
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- Location
- Hertfordshire
YOU have ruined the Surrey Hills
- Thread starter Longshot
- Start date
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Accy cyclist
Legendary Member
- Location
- The hills of Accrington
And YOU LOT do not pay road tax for the privlilege either(!) 
Gravity Aided
Legendary Member
- Location
- Land of Lincoln
Wow ! Glad to hear it's not just over here. I've been in the "You Lot" since I've been cycling. Probably before. Except over here, we are referred to as "You People", which usually means anyone different.
Leodis
Veteran
- Location
- Moortown, Leeds
We had someone next door who had one baby grow on the line and my wife was burning some garden rubbish and she said "You people", strange as we both own our ex council houses... Very odd.
Is the OP from an ethnic minority?
This could get interesting
I don't think so unless MAMIL counts?!
Shut Up Legs
Down Under Member
Yep, I've ruined Surrey Hills, I feel so guilty 
... no, wait a minute, where's Surrey Hills again?
... no, wait a minute, where's Surrey Hills again?
- Location
- Glasgow
Asking a passer by for directions to the wind turbine farm, I got accused of ruining the local woods with my mountain bike (was riding a 5 speed ladies town bike) and got a lecture on the environmental effects of wind turbines to boot 
swansonj
Guru
I can see exactly why people feel cyclists have ruined Surrey Hills. Cyclists mean you have to look extra carefully before crossing the road as a pedestrian, as a motorist you have to look extra carefully before changing lane or turning a corner and often wait for a suitable opportunity to overtake, in both cases you sometimes have to wait a remarkably long-seeming time for a gap, and you have to queue for longer at the cafe at the top of Box Hill. I understand exactly why all of those things irritate people.
Thing is, of course, all of those things are either using a facility for exactly the purpose it was intended (use of a paved road by a wheeled vehicle, use of a cafe by people in the vicinity), or are things that motorists do just as much (creating the need to look before crossing the road). But there's this perception that when motorists do something, it is normal, when cyclists do the same thing it is abnormal and therefore irritates people and leads them so feel (and genuinely believe) that cyclists have "ruined" the area which motorists haven't. It's a quite remarkable disconnect in people's minds.
In part I think this is just statistics - cars are more common that cycles, so whatever cars do, however objectively ruinous of an area it may be, is accepted as normal, an acceptance not extended to the rarer cycles. But in part I think it is about identification. Most people (certainly in the Surrey Hills area...) drive a car; other car drivers dress the same and behave in the same way; we're familiar with why car drivers do what they do; it is easy to see car drivers as "us", even when they are, objectively, creating a safety hazard, or delaying us, or polluting us, or causing another chunk of our greenery to be dug up for another car park. Cyclists, on the other hand, are not (to the average resident of Surrey Hills) "us", they are quite definitely "them". It's not just that the average resident of Surrey Hills doesn't cycle up Box Hill. It's that the people who do so mostly dress differently, have their own social groups they belong to identified by their own liveries, their own language to communicate in, and their own goals in life - all things that make them "them" and lead to this logically completely unsustainable but nevertheless deeply held view that cyclists are ruining the area.
Thing is, of course, all of those things are either using a facility for exactly the purpose it was intended (use of a paved road by a wheeled vehicle, use of a cafe by people in the vicinity), or are things that motorists do just as much (creating the need to look before crossing the road). But there's this perception that when motorists do something, it is normal, when cyclists do the same thing it is abnormal and therefore irritates people and leads them so feel (and genuinely believe) that cyclists have "ruined" the area which motorists haven't. It's a quite remarkable disconnect in people's minds.
In part I think this is just statistics - cars are more common that cycles, so whatever cars do, however objectively ruinous of an area it may be, is accepted as normal, an acceptance not extended to the rarer cycles. But in part I think it is about identification. Most people (certainly in the Surrey Hills area...) drive a car; other car drivers dress the same and behave in the same way; we're familiar with why car drivers do what they do; it is easy to see car drivers as "us", even when they are, objectively, creating a safety hazard, or delaying us, or polluting us, or causing another chunk of our greenery to be dug up for another car park. Cyclists, on the other hand, are not (to the average resident of Surrey Hills) "us", they are quite definitely "them". It's not just that the average resident of Surrey Hills doesn't cycle up Box Hill. It's that the people who do so mostly dress differently, have their own social groups they belong to identified by their own liveries, their own language to communicate in, and their own goals in life - all things that make them "them" and lead to this logically completely unsustainable but nevertheless deeply held view that cyclists are ruining the area.
I'm personally ruining the Lake District at the moment.....
My disabled wife walked up the path on Catbells this afternoon, but found coming down difficult
So I nipped back, got the mobility scooter and returned
On the way back, two walkers asked what I thought I was doing
Of course I could have merely pointed out I was delivering a disability aid to a disabled person on a route for the disabled..............but as they were so rude, I couldn't resist, and told them we were pioneering a new sport of cross country mobility scooter racing!
Apparently they are going to complain to the National Park Authority and have the sort banned!
My disabled wife walked up the path on Catbells this afternoon, but found coming down difficult
So I nipped back, got the mobility scooter and returned
On the way back, two walkers asked what I thought I was doing
Of course I could have merely pointed out I was delivering a disability aid to a disabled person on a route for the disabled..............but as they were so rude, I couldn't resist, and told them we were pioneering a new sport of cross country mobility scooter racing!
Apparently they are going to complain to the National Park Authority and have the sort banned!
tiswas-steve
Über Member
- Location
- Forest Hill S.E. london
Ok, so YOU LOT have ruined the Surrey hills, I'm gonna go somewhere untouched by bloody pesky pedal powered pr*cks, like the North Downs .......
Too late.. I already have those sown up. Me and my fellow local Cycle Chatting lycra lout chums...
tiswas-steve
Über Member
- Location
- Forest Hill S.E. london
