get outta the road!
Whilst waiting for the swimming pool to open, my conspiracy-theorist pal asked whether I had seen the helmet-cam-cycling footage of future national-treasure, Jeremy Vine? Obviously, not being part of today’s social media revolution I hadn’t, so he very kindly downloaded it onto his picture-phone. WTF.
If you haven’t heard about this interaction, or seen the footage, then I strongly urge you to do so as it is an eye-opener. The abuse and physical attack he receives at the hands of an illiterate, ill-mannered, foul-mouthed and frankly deranged young woman, little more than a girl, is beyond shocking and I can only hope the police follow-up on this as a matter of urgency. Anger-management as a minimum and a fine/suspended sentence if the magistrate is a pedal-pusher.
Sadly, this is not an isolated incident, and it is becoming all too common on our streets & byways and the question it begs is why? Why do cyclists make car drivers’ blood boil to such a degree that all sense of perspective and rational thought flies out of the window?
Jeremy’s calm explanation to his assailant was that the Highway Code’s recommendation is not to hug parked cars as, all too often an impact with an opened door will be your reward. However, this is often met with over-revved engines, tailgating, honking, the ‘punishment pass’ within inches of your back wheel or a full-on physical confrontation. To my mind, this highlights a level of entitlement some believe they have, on both sides of the argument, that places their right to be on road, and with no impediment, above that of all other users. The irony is that being ‘impaired’ for a couple of seconds by a cyclist pales in to insignificance when you consider the average speed of a travelling car in London is less than fifteen miles an hour. Logically following this through, when tailed back in the ubiquitous traffic-jam car drivers should all get out and ‘eff & jeff’ at each other. And themselves.
What a strange reason to hate someone: their mode of transport. Never have tolerance and acceptance been found more wanting. Honk, honk!
