“Run ‘em Down!” says Tony Kornheiser, US Radio Host

He was complaining about a whole road being made into a cycle lane:-

but after his ‘run ‘em down comments’ loads of cyclists complained and it quickly got round to Lance Armstrong who ended up on Kornheiser’s show. Armstrong went on to make some good points and that cyclists and motorists should have ‘mutual respect’.

He also ‘stuck up for women cyclists’ who may be afraid of learning to cycle because of the dangerous motorists. He also spoke well and kept his composure (surprisingly).

There’s this myth that motorists are impatient and only ‘pick on cyclists’ but they are impatient even with funeral hearses and horse riders. Many motorists don’t give a damm. It is even worse for horse riders, as they cannot get away easily and the horse could bolt. Motorists want to go fast.

The media as we know ‘hates cyclists’. It is just that other news doesn’t get reported so much but they are easily found all over the internet, although some of these may not be reported at all. I know for a fact that a policewoman riding her horse was hit by a motorist, as she told me. Why do you think there are hardly any horses actually using the road? They are being hounded out by the aggressive motorist. God help anyone who gets in their way.

Then Lance reminded Kornheiser that ‘this is 2010′ and because of the rising of social media comments such as his will escalate so he has to be careful with what he says.

Just goes to show how important it is for cyclists to complain on a mass scale.

This is the Cyber Velorution – We are a FORCE!

Today’s commute, today’s abuse

On my morning’s commute to work, I went into primary position (it is a nasty fast road and full of snooty arrogant motorists) and of course, a motorist in a sports car blew the horn at me.

What was the hurry? Oh, he wanted to go to the petrol station.

I very nearly went after him but at a petrol station, you are surrounded by other equally arrogant motorists, and I don’t think a bit of street theatre would have worked, like it normally does. Good street theatre is best saved for red traffic lights.

Bike Road Rage

There seems to be the odd bike road rage attacks in the media, but I believe many go ‘unreported’, as often the car driver zooms off too quickly, and sometimes you don’t think  it is worth reporting the incident anyway.

I’ve been lucky so far, but I have often felt angry when a motorist  cuts me up. Now, I find that I kind of get my revenge when I meet them at the traffic lights or when their vehicle is slow. The other week, a London bus driver, cut me up but I didn’t get angry (even though I was!)  (but I just used ‘mime’ with my hands and showed him that he didn’t give me enough space).

Sometimes mime is better than shouting at them because it has the advantage of other people witnessing his rotten driving! No one likes to be humiliated.