Comments on: Cycling to work – why people hate cyclists, part 4

By: Kim

Kim — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 18:53:18 +0000

Lycra is a total fashion faux pas, all cycle commuters should note the way the Danes do it! ;-)

By: weeman taylor

weeman taylor — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:17:49 +0000

hi mate this is weeman right here and i was just thinking that would you hate the world if there was know cars or things like that. by the way my real name is not weeman it’s zac and i am from america and i come from washington dc but right now writing this im in new york and its really good. so u know me i want to know you. see you later mate talk soon i hope couse i am really looking forward to it.

By: Dominic Sayers

Dominic Sayers — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 13:22:07 +0000

p.s. If JP is reading this, I realise I could have used a semicolon in the final sentence of the third paragraph. Always a shame to miss the opportunity for a correctly-used semicolon.

By: Dominic Sayers

Dominic Sayers — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 13:19:20 +0000

Hi Jamie, thanks again for the contribution.

When I used to cycle before I had my children I used to get very angry about the sort of things you talk about – it was frustration at the injustice of being the victim whether you are right or wrong.

Now I feel a lot less emotional about cycling. Don’t know whether it’s old age, or being a father, or what. If I have unnecessarily inconvenienced a motorist I am happy to apologise, if he is upbraiding me for no reason then I just hear the sound of ducks quacking.

I place myself in danger as little as possible. When it is unavoidable I make myself as visible as possible whatever the consequence to motorists’ journey times.

By: JamieLB

JamieLB — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 23:03:01 +0000

I realize that this thread is old, but I wanted to add my 2 cents worth. As an individual who just picked biking up to save the green; I mean the green in my wallet, I think that it is inevitable that individuals will hate the majority (Cyclists in general) for what the minority (the few cyclists who in almost a belligerent way show contempt for sharing the road). History shows that when one individual presented or provisioned inappropriate behavior in society the majority harvested ill will toward all those who were affiliated with that individual. This seems to be human nature. For all of the so called “Bike Rider” haters out there, when you act on your hate or allow your rage to fuel to action against the general population, you are more likely to severely hurt or kill indefinitely an innocent person (innocent to anything that you have accused the very few that ARE guilty). I don’t believe that there are many in this thread that are so called “Bike Haters” that would derive any type of satisfaction over severely injuring or even killing an innocent person just because they did not like them. I would hope that most people (in the U.S. especially) are past that. I am a work commuter and I ride in the bike lane, stop at every red light, every stop sign, and on occasion I will walk my bike across the pedestrian walk way to maintain my own safety and still, on a day to day basis I get an angry person honking, yelling out a few obscenities, and telling me to move or get off the road. Not sure what the “anger” is all about; it is almost like a post-traumatic syndrome response to previous events in said “Bike Rider” hater’s life. There are signs going up all over the U.S. with the accompanying bike lane that say share the road. I understand and totally agree that this is a “two-way” street figuratively speaking and that cyclists need to be just as courteous as the motorists, but I think that it is important to note that when a cyclist is not courteous he pays the price, sometimes with his/her own life. When a motorist is not courteous, (again) the cyclist pays the price, sometimes with his/her own life. The motorist in most situations on the road does not have much to lose, except maybe a few milliseconds of saved time because he/she could not make that right turn just a little sooner (which would be the same if a motor-vehicle was going straight and not turning and was in front of the vehicle that was trying to turn, so why not yell, scream, and honk at him/her). My point is to be aware of who you are getting angry at because most cyclists (bike riders) are pretty good at doing the best they can to keep pace and maintain traffic laws. My 12 yr old son was almost hit the other day while riding his bike well to the right of the bike lane when an angry person decided to come up behind him and yell “MOVE!” which startled him caused him to wobble and then swerve into the path of the car behind the one that had yelled at him. If you think that your anger is justified in a general way to display such behavior, realize that after the action you cannot choose the consequence. This person was arrested for reckless endangerment as there was a police officer sitting at the top of the street to witness this. If my son had been hit then the individual would have been charged with assault with a deadly weapon, because that is what a motor vehicle is when with anger it used to intimidate with the intent to injure a cyclist. To the individual in this thread who mentioned that it is all about law suits; if my son had been hit and killed due to reckless angry behavior as this person had exhibited, I would have sued harshly and attempted to take away as much as possible, because they would eventually recover from the temporary loss, but I would never get my son back. So, angry “bike rider” haters, at minimum have the decency to observe the cyclist who you are about to LASH out at, (not that lashing out at a bad cyclists is right) and make sure that you are not targeting a person who is just trying to make it in the world just like everyone else. Someone in a European article said this about the topic, “And remember, those are people, not cyclists. They have families, mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, brothers and sisters – so try not to kill us”

By: velochick

velochick — Tue, 20 May 2008 09:25:42 +0000

I like lycra.. I think people who don’t like lycra just feel bad about being fat and unfit! We show them up a bit.

I love wearing shocking bright colours to wind them up in even further.

By: Dave M

Dave M — Tue, 06 May 2008 15:57:12 +0000

If it became legal to treat red lights as a give way (as in America, where this is widespread for right turns at least) – would cyclists still be (as) badly behaved?

I suppose it depends if you judge behaviour by the standards of motorised vehicle laws, or common sense.

By: Messenger of Doom

Messenger of Doom — Fri, 02 May 2008 19:33:00 +0000

The worst behaved road users are cyclists in my opinion and experience.

By: Dave M

Dave M — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:12:20 +0000

Andrew, the answer is in your question. You’re only going 7km so why bother with technical gear?

When I first started riding I only had a short distance to do which I accomplished on a battered old mountain bike. I had similar experiences of riders with flashy bikes and gear overtaking me, and I felt strangely secure in my “underdog-ness”. Ha – I didn’t need skinny tires and drop handlebars just to get to work!

Probably the reason people overtake you is because they are going faster (after all, that’s what coming up from behind, and passing, means!). If you go as fast as them, surely they’d never catch up and need to pass?

PS. a short vexed spurt of speed when you get passed doesn’t count! ;-)

By: andrew

andrew — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 06:34:34 +0000

Thinking of starting a club “Cyclists against lycra” – I ride to work everyday of the week, often in warm weather and don’t feel the need to dress up like a super hero to travel my 7km. Problem is the skin-tight brigade always feel the need to overtake me even if they are going essentially the same pace as me, is this because of my trousers and shirt? Is there a rule of the peleton I’m missing? Are they embarrassed to not be the fastest on the cycle path? Anyway I forget my point save for the fact that I think they’re dumb.