This hatred towards cyclists needs to stop

[OverlyFragrant]

This constant drip feeding from the media and online that cyclists are road vermin, dont pay tax, shouldn't be on roads etc needs to stop.
The last two days ive read about cyclists being pushed into dangerous situations by members of the public who feel entitled to hurt them, just because...
First a cyclist was pushed into a canal, the cyclist was still clipped into their bike pedals and couldn't swim. They very nearly drowned.
The second was pushed off a beach wall and needed urgent assistance from the ambulance and suffered serious injuries.
Words aren't just words, they have consequences and know two people have come to harm simply because they were riding a bike.

I avoid shared paths like the plague, slow down & ring a bell and its "You frightened the shit out of me" Shout a polite "morning" and its "why haven't you a bell?"

Then there are dogs running loose or on those long extended leads or people will walk towards you and make zero attempt to even walk to one side, so both can pass easily.

Even dedicated cycle paths are quickly used by walkers who don't want bike riders on them.

It's the cars I get pissed off with. I find I'm sitting in my car in a traffic jam more often than not. If the cars pissed off it would be fine, I could get where I'm going much more quickly . . .

I was very happy with the risk. The children were in specially designed seats with safety features and, of course, wore helmets. We had no incidents.

I also think that people should care more about the safety of all children (and people) and not just their own when they get in a car, but I recognise this is not a mainstream view. I relate to your idea of feeling sickened by thinking it must be unsafe when you see someone cycling with a child (even if I disagree) - it's how I feel when I see people driving SUVs with hoods higher than the height of a four year old, which I increasingly often see due to fashion. When I see that that person has children in their own car I do wonder how they can be so selfish and drive a car that endangers other people's children while cocooning their own in it. Again, I recognise that this is a minority view and quite shaped by a formative experience of mine. I had three miscarriages while living in an area of terrible traffic, and only then discovered that living there and breathing it in statistically raised my miscarriage risk by as much as smoking. We moved deliberately to somewhere where we could massively reduce our own car use, and I feel very differently about the risks v benefits of car driving now.

Talk about missing the point!!

No one has the right to call any group "Vermin" they are people.

I doubt that nasty pp would call a cyclist he/she works with "Vermin" though probably refers to migrants as Vermin too.

Needs to stop - after all, 1800 are killed by vehicle drivers each year, thats 7 passenger jets falling out the sky each year.

The problem is car drivers.

It's on I.O.W This wouldn't happen because the path runs along for about a mile, there is no cycle lane and the island is financially strapped like a lot of other places.
There is another similar area that runs from Lake up to Shanklin [about a mile] with cliffs, the 15ft wide path, a deep drop and that falls onto concrete as part of erosion protection, then sandy beach. No rails either. The walk is continous right along the sea front.
But again peeps walk along the edge staring at phones and some young kids walk as close to the edge as they can. Peeps don't seem to realise that if you fall you are likely to be killed or possibly sustain life changing injuries.
Most people manage to walk, cycle without incident and I'm not aware of any accidents until this cyclist incident which was deliberate.

Oh how we laughed! 🙄

If a child’s body skidding along the ground or striking something hard when a bicycle has an accident doesn’t bother you, go for it.

Far too many cyclists have no idea how to use shared paths appropriately. Up here, the Outdoor Access Code is quite clear - "On narrow routes, cycling may cause problems for other people, such as walkers and horse riders. If this occurs, dismount and walk until the path becomes suitable again. Do not endanger walkers and horse riders: give other users advance warning of your presence and give way to them on a narrow path".

I've lost count of the number of times I've been walking my dog and have had cyclists ringing their bell at me to move off the narrow path to allow them to progress unimpeded. I've also had cyclists without bells shouting "move" whilst gesticulating at me to get off the narrow canal path, "bike behind" while speeding up behind me, and others simply speeding past at close proximity, giving me and the dog a fright. If you're one of the ones who do that then I can't help it if my dog barks at you, so don't get uppity. Also, if I'm walking the dog off-lead in a deserted wood or up a forestry track somewhere (that's not a designated mountain bike trail), ring your bell, slow down and give me time to clip the lead on - that way, we can all avoid an accident.

Cyclists on roads who ride 3 abreast in rush hour traffic are a complete pita. They expect cars to show them a level of consideration that many cyclists simply don't extend to walkers.

I live close to the I.O.W. in Bournemouth!🙂Very near to you. Bournemouth is also really dangerous to cycle around even though the council have made some attempts at building cycle paths. It's too congested.

I understand that the hatred needs to stop & that there is no excuse for the violent acts.

However, cycling on public roads needs to be regulated in some form.

I encounter a lot of cyclists on country roads near to me on a night time wearing dark clothes & few or no lights on their bikes at all! My friends car was damaged by an uninsured cyclist & she had to pay to replace her own wing mirror which was nearly £400.00. That's not fair on motorists. As a bare minimum they should be insured & pay a tax as they contribute towards wear & tear on public roads, no how minimal this is. They should also have to wear a helmet.

The thing is, I live rurally with narrow and often winding roads.
The farmer with his big slow tractor would waive you past if the road ahead is clear... horse riders would do the same... cyclists on the other hand seem to be oblivious to other road users.

Don't get me wrong, I will be very considered of them and spend driving at their speed until it's safe to pass... even if it's several miles.

But this is what I mean - ringing a bell is wrong, saying 'bike behind' is wrong (obviously I agree saying 'move' is rude), going past without saying anything is wrong, even though that must mean there's room for them to pass you - what do you want them to do? Get off the bike and walk behind you for the entire rest of the journey?

I wish parents would teach children how to ride a bike properly. When the new school year starts our pavements will be filled with children on bikes riding to school. They seem to have no idea that they are supposed to ride on the road or at least get off and walk on the pavement along side the bike.

Interesting comment. I see just as many bad female cyclists as males, in fact the only one that started swearing at me was a female.

Those stories are horrendous OP! The rage against them is out of all proportion, sure there are some idiots who have injured and killed people by reckless riding, but it would be the tiniest blip on the radar compared with the harm cars do.

DH cycles and has had many near misses, some just carelessness but some quite deliberate - especially from twats in white vans who seem to think they own the whole road for some reason.

Yes!

Exercise some patience if the people also using the path/space cannot get out of your way immediately, perhaps.

I concur.

I'm a driver, pedestrian and horse rider and it seems no matter what activity I'm doing at the time the expectation is that the cyclist has priority over whoever they come across.

Driving and I have to wait behind until I can overtake safely at a good distance and responsible speed - absolutely, because they're the vulnerable road user and that's how it should be, but then that should follow that when I'm the vulnerable one as a pedestrian or horse rider, the same rules should apply, if the cyclist can't overtake me safely then they should wait behind until they can, overtake at a safe distance and speed, that doesn't seem to be the case though, I'm expected to get out of their way because they're going faster than me and if I don't/can't then they'll just come as close as physically possible and usually at speed.

So I can see why there's resentment, as a driver I'm supposed to be mindful of their vulnerability and act accordingly (which I do) yet when I'm the vulnerable one that same mindfulness towards vulnerability isn't respected and I'm just supposed to get out of their way so they can continue unhindered.

Absolutely this.

cyclists have one rule for how they treat the slower more vulnerable pedestrian on a pedestrian priority path - don’t slow down, don’t move out of your own planned trajectory, all expectation is on the pedestrian to stop and step aside.

and another rule for what they expect of cars when they are the slower more vulnerable party. Now they expect the cars to Slow down, massive wide berth.

there is good reason people are sick of cyclists and it’s nothing to do with the media and everything to do with tflheir entitlement

I try and be a courteous driver but admit to frustration when cyclists hold up the traffic by not being even close to minimum speed limit for a road. Was in a line of 9 cars held up by one cyclist yesterday. It seems pretty selfish behaviour and I also,genuinely don't know why anyone would put themselves in mortal danger by balancing on a flimsy structure,with almost no protection amongst bigger,heavier faster moving vehicles. In even the tiniest of collisions no matter who was at fault, a cyclist will ALWAYS come off worst.

This constant drip feeding from the media and online that cyclists are road vermin, dont pay tax, shouldn't be on roads etc needs to stop.

Of course I've come across this nonsense, but I don't see it constantly from the media and online. I read a newspaper, I listen to the news, I spend time online but read as much positive stuff as negative.

Meanwhile I carry on cycling and see plenty of others around me doing so. I am also a driver and a road runner ie I spend time on the roads and public paths using different 'forms of transport'.

The roads are busier in general so my behaviour is different to how it was 20 years ago, but nothing has stopped me doing what I enjoy.

Did you read my post? Because it doesn't sound like you did, or that you understood it.

"On narrow routes, cycling may cause problems for other people, such as walkers and horse riders. If this occurs, dismount and walk until the path becomes suitable again. Do not endanger walkers and horse riders: give other users advance warning of your presence and give way to them on a narrow path".

So by all means, ring your bell or say bike behind, but do not assume either mean a)the walker will hear you or b)the walker will be able or willing to accommodate your wish to cycle past without moving off the path and into the undergrowth. At other times, ring your bell, slow down, and prepared to get off and walk if needed. If you have to walk behind the other walker for a while then tough. Think of it in the same way that cars sometimes have to drive behind cyclists for long distances before they are able to get past.

SOME cyclists. Or is this your experience with all of them?

The people who hate cyclists are the sort that wonder why they have obese children as they stuff them in the car to take them to MacDonalds

Yup. That is absolutely what I would expect if the cyclist is coming towards me on a canal path with pedestrian priority. Ie the cyclist is the one inconvenienced not the pedestrian. The fact that this hasn’t even occurred to you as a cyclist shows exactly the problem - the entitlement of cyclists that everyone else is inconvenienced, never them. If approaching from behind, the courteous thing for a cyclist to do, would be to ding, the dismount and walk quickly past them before mounting again. This clearly has never occurred to a cyclist.