Author Topic: BikeRadar Article  (Read 2365 times)

BikeRadar Article
« on: 18 January, 2018, 09:36:42 am »
First read the opinion in the BikeRadar article below about all cyclists being tainted by the antics of urban, and in particular, London cyclists.

https://www.bikeradar.com/gear/article/how-cities-are-ruining-cyclings-reputation-51559/

I know many urban cyclist are going to take umbridge at the nature of the article and having the finger pointed at them, but I think the author has a point.

I live in Shropshire, not a County known for its vast areas of urbanisation, traffic jams or bands of marauding militant cyclists, but when I have spoken to people about cycling they repeat some, no a lot of the running red lights, helmets, HiViz, Tax & MOT type rhetoric spewed out by the Daily Mail gutter press, usually without even thinking about what they are saying. And the problem is they believe it, even though the vast majority of them have neither seen any dangerous cycling or thought about the tax/insurance etc argument properly, such is the power of the press.

What are the thoughts of the great unwashed?

Re: BikeRadar Article
« Reply #1 on: 18 January, 2018, 09:48:14 am »
What are the thoughts of the great unwashed?

That minority behaviour and general ignorance will always result in a picture that does not reflect reality.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: BikeRadar Article
« Reply #2 on: 18 January, 2018, 09:53:31 am »
I think there's a demographics factor.  I don't think I've ever actually been accused of jumping red lights or riding on pavements (except ironically by other cyclists), although guilty as charged for extremely part-time helmet use, and I have had the road tax debate a couple of times.

Being something other than a young-to-middle-aged male helps, I think.  As does obviously participating in a non-stereotypical[1] form of cycling.  Sit-up-and-beg bikes with baskets, recumbents, tandems, fully-loaded tourers all seem to bypass the usual stereotypes.

But what it really comes down to is the media regurgitating the usual tropes so everyone has the script, and that we're a visible out-group.  In the Netherlands, it's moped riders.



[1] By which I'd include any sort of DF bike in combination with lycra, Altura jackets, Hump rucksack covers etc., with going fast, or with being a teenager (which makes you a petty criminal by default).

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: BikeRadar Article
« Reply #3 on: 18 January, 2018, 10:03:18 am »
From the article:
Quote
I don’t ask you why every black Audi appears to be driven by a jerk, do I?
Sums it up. It's nothing to do with cities or rural areas except that the media tend to be urban based (though their staff might be rural).
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: BikeRadar Article
« Reply #4 on: 18 January, 2018, 10:18:07 am »
People notice aberrations more than they notice the norm. So cyclist's complying with traffic laws, merging with traffic are invisible, unmemorable. Cyclists cutting you up, flashing across the junction through a red light, jumping up on the pavement; they are memorable.

I've been stopped at a junction on my bike and had a complaint about 'bl**dy cyclists blah blah' said to me, more than once.

It is human nature to notice what stands out or threatens us.
<i>Marmite slave</i>

Re: BikeRadar Article
« Reply #5 on: 18 January, 2018, 11:51:43 pm »
I think that's fair. I'm a relatively recent London commuter, and one who doesn't tend to jump lights etc. I often go through sets of lights where there's a reasonable collection of cyclists, and no-one at all RLJs. To be fair, there are other places where five cyclists will arrive, and three will nip through.

That said, we are a bit blind to what we do as motorists. For example, the law says stop on amber (if it's safe). Stopping on red is irrelevant, because the whole point is to have stopped before the lights go red. That we have forgotten that and even discuss stopping on red is exclusively an achievement of us as motorists, in which cyclists had no part. And several mornings this week motorists have tried to cut across into a cycle lane and use it as a left-turn lane at a roundabout, in one case when I was already in the lane and the driver knew it.

So, if that's the general social attitude, it's no great surprise that the same people, when they get on bikes, push the envelope too.

In any case, it makes no sense to talk about cyclists as a group distinct from motorists. Most, though not all, cyclists are motorists. It's like saying that rugby players are more aggressive than men. It just doesn't hang together as a statement. You could of course say that men get more aggressive when they play rugby, or that motorists/people become less law-abiding when they get on bikes. Whether that would be true is another matter, but it would at least make logical sense.

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: BikeRadar Article
« Reply #6 on: 19 January, 2018, 06:38:07 am »
London is generally lawless for cycling.  You don't see *most* people running red lights around here.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Re: BikeRadar Article
« Reply #7 on: 19 January, 2018, 07:41:15 pm »
The odd thing is that the article he links to about the percentage of Britain that's built on is from 2012. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18623096

That coincided with 'Peak London' the time of the Olympics.

It was interesting to gauge the reactions of foreign participants in LEL, they found it difficult to square the reality of the UK with the image of a crowded island. I take him to be saying that the image of cycling culture is very limited in terms of the area it derives from. Audaxers know that already, and this article is perhaps the sign of a media that's catching up.

Re: BikeRadar Article
« Reply #8 on: 19 January, 2018, 10:15:57 pm »
Not sure you're not reading a bit too much into that, ESL; a quick bit of googling suggests that the last major land UK use survey was published back in 2012, so there were a bunch of news stories then (& also a few last November, but AFAICS that was around an atlas that was built on the 2012 survey). Honestly I don't think the media has much idea of or interest in cycling culture (the Graun perhaps excepted, and possibly the 'lifestyle/men's [sic.]' sections of the Tele/Times); they're more interested in creating bogeymen for a three minute hate.

I did think the piece was interesting, mind.

Re: BikeRadar Article
« Reply #9 on: 19 January, 2018, 10:32:20 pm »
...and in particular, London...
A plaice where the average speed of traffic when I was a school kid was reported to be 12 mph, and in the decades since has apparently dwindled closer to 12 kph. Surely its the one plaice in Little Britain where the disadvantages of the motorcar are at their most obvious, and thus surely that most needy of some complaining about cyclists to distract peoples attention from the otherwise evident disadvantages of popular motoring.