Cycling UK Forum

Vorpal wrote:What an awful experience. Did you report it to police?

Sadly, from my past experience and that of others (eg. https://forum.cyclinguk.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=131124), the Met, if not actually part of the problem, are certainly not interested in incidents involving cyclists unless you're already dead.

When I was knocked off and injured in a hit-and-run in 2016 they were reluctant to even take my statement when I hobbled to the police station, let alone attend the incident or actually do anything to find or prosecute the driver.

toontra wrote:

Vorpal wrote:What an awful experience. Did you report it to police?

Sadly, from my past experience and that of others (eg. https://forum.cyclinguk.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=131124), the Met, if not actually part of the problem, are certainly not interested in incidents involving cyclists unless you're already dead.

When I was knocked off and injured in a hit-and-run in 2016 they were reluctant to even take my statement when I hobbled to the police station, let alone attend the incident or actually do anything to find or prosecute the driver.

It's such attitudes by the police,and I have been met with the same "can't be bother to do their job properly" on a number of occasions that I find the most irritating and downright disgusting which gives the motorist cart blanche to bully other road users and drive dangerously.
The police IMHO are not fit for purpose,whatever the reason for that the end result is more criminality,and sorry to say,it's getting worse.

I'll probably watch the programme and just hope that it's balanced.

Regardless of that, hatred towards cyclists is very real and anyone saying different needs to get their head out of the sand. Just look at the YouTube videos* (normally taken by vigilante motorcyclists) where cyclists make mistakes, crash or fall or are just plain stupid. The comments section is full of anti-cyclist bile and hatred. "Two wheels good"? I don't think so.

* There's no need to tell me that you can find 100x more videos of motorists and motorcyclists doing far worse and with the associated increase in danger to more vulnerable road users.

TBH I am not sure it's the police fault. It's a result of home office priority setting and budgets. The CC will obviously cut his / her cloth according to budgets and what is given to them as the national priority.

I just think you should blame the politicians more than the police for enforcement issues and quite possibly the electorate might have a piece of the blame. We elect the people who fcuk up society through party political ideology. So blame the tories, tories / LibDems and before then the Labour shower.

Yes you heard me right, blame the tories!

Tangled Metal wrote:It sounds like the TV programming version of Internet clickbait. If you don't go for clickbait on the Internet don't go for it on TV! Simples!

hear hear!

mattheus wrote:

Tangled Metal wrote:It sounds like the TV programming version of Internet clickbait. If you don't go for clickbait on the Internet don't go for it on TV! Simples!

hear hear!

Possibly it is clickbait, but worth watching to see if it's a balanced view - if it turns out to be a 'hate cyclist' feature, then it needs reporting to the Police.

I often hate and despise motrons, for example the monster-truck driver who parked on my cycleway this evening to save driving ten yards
The scum that rises to the surface, they are

fastpedaller wrote:
Possibly it is clickbait, but worth watching to see if it's a balanced view - if it turns out to be a 'hate cyclist' feature, then it needs reporting to the Police.

And let us non-watchers know whose advertising appears during the breaks.

I posted this up on road.cc just now in response to an article about a channel 5 program ("Channel 5 documentary next week asks if cyclists are “Scourge Of The Streets”"), then I thought - pop it onto the CUK forum.

I grew up with bikes in the 50's and 60's - its what we did in those days, bikes gave us kids the freedom and ability to go out and explore, we enjoyed the freedom of it all and just loved going for rides, or going places. As a 13 and 14 year old I went out with my friends on our 3-speed uprights - after school, in the evenings, maybe a 10 mile round trip along the country lanes to Elmdon to watch the planes with our battery lamps to light the way, all in perfect safety. Cycle across from Small Heath to Sutton Park as a twelve year old with my mates - just a routine fun thing to do.

Age 16 - 17 (Until motorbikes took over!) - its how I got to work, and got out and about - from Shard End all over, to Coleshill, Fillongley, Tamworth, - visit my relatives in Hayes? Just hop onto the A41 and go there.

In my early 40's I was getting a bit unhealthy, so I bought a bike. Joy!

Now knocking on 70 and still enjoy riding - but - when did cycling become something that a section of the community thinks is anti-social or whatever?

When did my hobby, and the thing that as a by-product keeps me healthier than most of my contemporaries, become so unpleasant occasionally and start to cause so much controversy and ill-feeling?

When did I have to stop going herever I wanted by whatever route I fancied around Birmingham and have to start planning safer routes? (Even in the early 1990's I just rode to work straight down the A38 in the town centre to get to work occasionally).

When did headlines and TV programs start to have this type of subject?

In my teens - and even in my 40's many years later -I simply do not recollect any of the unpleasantness I experience almost every time I go out. Nor the plethora of potholes and dangerous road surfaces for that matter.

does anyone know - what happened?

I started cycling in the 1980s and I've always had to beware motorists, so it seems it was considered antisocial by then.

Well, I won't bother watching it. I'll go for a nice bike ride and come home, listen to some Bach and enjoy a glass of wine.

rmurphy195 wrote:When did headlines and TV programs start to have this type of subject?

I'm not sure that has much to do with cycling. TV has become increasingly nasty, I stopped watching over a decade ago, people seem to like seeing others humiliated and attacked, there's a whole industry based on nothing but that.

There is a journalist here in Melbourne who refers to cyclists as cockroaches!

Mike (77 this year and did what the other posters did when i was a yoof)

At a guess, probably when traffic densities got high enough that it became less of a hassle to travel by bike.
Before that bikes where ignored.
After that as bike numbers started to increase, it became more "cars vs bikes" as bad news/confrontation sells more papers.

YMMV ............

My bike history started off much like yours and now 76 my cycling is a big part of my life.
I'm not sure cycling has become anti-social in most peoples eyes.
Crowded city roads creates anger from the motorists against cyclists, pedestrians and other drivers.
There is a general feeling that cycling is good for the planet, the cyclist and the immediate environment.
Idiots cycling at speed on pavements, commuter warriors striving to beat their personal best journey time and taking risks, these are the anti-socials.
Media loves to take a small problem and blow it up out of all proportion. it's what sells