Imagine standing in a large hall filled with people and asking “Who here likes cyclists? That man at the back? No? The woman at the front? No?” Inevitably one dread-locked heroin addict cycle courier will put his hand up. People will glare. For it’s a simple fact. People don’t like cyclists. They may like the idea of cycling, they may even like the idea that it’s convenient to get around, but as soon as you’re on that bike you become a spandex clad Osama Bin Laden.
The people that hold the greatest hatred for cyclists are most definitely the motorists. Cyclists quickly weave in and out of traffic, unpredictable and untrained. They don’t look when they come out from junctions and seem to feel like they rule the world. The average motorist sees red as the cyclists cruise through the lights without fear of the consequences and seemingly carefree. It gets worse when they wait at the front in those green boxes designated for them to create a rolling roadblock of slow moving obstacles. If confronted they kick the car door before darting off.
It’s not much better if you’re a pedestrian. They are the silent killers. Darting between stationary vehicles and buses at terrifying speed, you gingerly poke your head from behind buses waiting for their helmet to go crushing through your skull. They give you angry looks as they plough through zebra crossing and through the red lights. If you’re unfortunate enough to step onto the road to avoid people on the pavement and God forbid they have to break for you, expect a torrent of abuse or a knife through the chest.
But it isn’t just pedestrians and people on four wheels that despise pedal powered maniacs. Cyclists hate each other too! They get in each others way, moving too slowly. The spandex clad people with clip on pedals tut as they speed past pudgy businessmen commuting back from the city. They travel in elite clique packs with bulging calves screaming at anyone who gets in their way.
But then again why would you blame them. For being a cyclist is a truly insane and dangerous thing to be. The ROSPA, The Royal Society For The Prevention Of Accidents released statistics from 2007 saying that over 16,000 cyclists were killed or injured, including 2500 killed or seriously injured. That’s only the reported cases. They estimate that the figure could be as many as 150,000, most of which go unreported.
And things are only going to get worse. London Mayor Boris Johnson is planning to get more Londoners cycling. So there’ll be more incidents of cycle rage and higher death rates. Already we read on a monthly basis about cyclists getting killed by Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGV’s). Ironically Boris Johnson himself was almost killed prospecting cycling routes when the door of an HGV catapulted a car into his path. And thanks to various cycling initiatives, in the coming years we can all look forward to more anger and less regulation of the speed daemon psycholists.
Just this week I became a cyclist! Boo hiss I hear you cry. I have decided to ditch my car in favour of the bike (mainly to try and get some much needed exercise into my life). I am absolutely loving it.
The stats you quote are scary and in just five days I have experienced car anger, tutting pro-bikers and the worst of all are the angry bus drivers because you are in the ‘bus’ lanes and they really don’t like it.
That is absolutely untrue, and horribly slanted. I don’t have facts and figures, and I don’t doubt yours, but cyclists do not foster animosity towards pedestrians or other cyclists, and motorists are just as aggressive towards cyclists as cyclists are to motorists. True, there are many who ignore the laws of the street, but even other cyclists look down on them and there are just as many motorists who do so as well. In fact, Today said that cars running red lights kill 800 people per year in the United States, and I’m sure that number is proportional to the UK as well.
The thing you fail to mention is that with more cyclists on the road, the accident/injury rate goes down. The more cyclists on the road, the fewer cyclists get injured and the fewer accidents between cyclists and motorists. Denmark is an incredible example; there are more cyclists there than any country in the western world, and yet there are fewer accidents involving cyclists there than anywhere else. It is the opposite with motor vehicles, the more motorists are on the road, the more automobile accidents there are.
You blame cyclists for cycling accidents when in fact, the fault is not entirely ours.
I meant to say USA Today (the newspaper) said that cars running red lights kills 800 people per year in the United States